Fresh Strawberry Cake

I want to share with you my absolute most favorite recipe for homemade strawberry cake. For some reason, good from-scratch strawberry cake recipes are really hard to find. There are a wealth of recipes that use strawberry-flavored jello, strawberry extract, and a boxed cake mix but what if you want to make a cake to put a dent in that gallon bag of strawberries you have in the freezer?

If you ask me, strawberries just might be the world’s most perfect fruit. Well, pretty darn perfect as long as they’re ripe and clean 🙂 Decadent enough to be considered dessert on their own, they most certainly don’t need artificially flavored Jello and food coloring to bring out the best in them.

If you are still looking for a good, completely-from-scratch strawberry cake without Yellow No. 5 and Red No. 6, this should go on the top of your must-try list. The cake is nice and moist, has a prominent strawberry flavor, and it’s pink! From nothin‘ but strawberries.

My husband was really excited. I stared at him from across the booth at Jason’s Deli, no doubt a little puzzled at the time. He was reading the ingredients on a bag of potato chips and was completely blown away that the manufacturer was only selling us potato chips in our bag of potato chips.

I was a little surprised myself. Ingredient labels on packaged foods can sometimes be a little daunting – and sometimes extremely disappointing (cough Central Market and their pistachio-less Pistachio Muffins cough).

I’m most definitely not anti-packaged foods. I always have a couple boxes of Duncan Hines cake mix in my pantry. There’s nothing worse than being wide awake at 1am and having nothing sweet to munch on or getting smacked with a chocolate craving when the weather is too bad to leave the house. French Vanilla cupcakes, straight out of the oven, are the best! And your house still smells wonderful when you come downstairs the next day. That being said, I do mostly bake from scratch because it’s fun.

You know, “fun” to realize that you don’t have enough sugar, “fun” to get started and realize that there is actually an over-night step involved, or “fun” to realize that what you thought was a box of cake flour in the bottom drawer of the pantry was actually a misplaced box of Lucky Charms. You know. “Fun.”

This has been the most popular recipe on my site for over 3 years now. I’ve tried to condense the most common questions and comments from the comments below into a FAQ. Please do take a second to skim through so you get the best tasting cake from your efforts!

Strawberry Cake FAQ

Why is the cake in the picture three layers and the recipe only for two?
Because I doubled the recipe (4 layers) and froze the extra layer. If you want a 3-layer cake, you can do the same. Or just increase the recipe by 50% for the third layer (you’ll need 3 pans).

Why is my cake a different color than yours?All of the color and flavor comes from the berries. Use the best, ripest berries you can find during strawberry season – all red berries with little/no white. Out-of-season berries that have been shipped half a world away won’t give you a pretty pink cake or much strawberry flavor so consider using frozen (no sugar added) berries instead. If your color/flavor is lacking, it was the berries.

For the strawberry puree, I’ve found that cooking the strawberries down gives the cake a more vibrant color (see the cupcake picture above) and a stronger strawberry flavor. To do this using fresh strawberries, rough chop the strawberries, toss with sugar, and let sit for an hour or so until nice and juicy. Add 1/4 cup water and then simmer in a small sauce pan for 15-20 minutes, until the berries are very soft.

To do this using frozen strawberries, place the thawed berries and any accumulated juices into a small sauce pan and then simmer 15-20 minutes, until the berries are very soft.

Pour into a fine strainer set over a bowl. With a rubber spatula or spoon, scrape and press the strawberries through the strainer until all of the juice is in the bowl and you’re only left with the juiceless pulp (don’t rush this step – it’s important). Discard the pulp and transfer the juice back to the sauce pan. Reduce the liquid down to 1/2 cup and cool. Proceed with the recipe, using 1/2 cup of milk.

What is this “cooked puree” business? That wasn’t here last time I made this cake.
See the previous question. If you use the cooked puree method described above, you’ll use 1/2 cup cooked puree + 1/2 cup milk. If you use the original method described in the recipe below, you’ll use 3/4 cup fresh puree + 1/4 cup milk.

What did you fill the cake in the picture with?
I used Quick Buttercream Frosting and leftover strawberry puree (from the recipe below).

Instructions

If frozen strawberries in whatever form (sliced, whole, etc) and in whatever container/bag you have them in. Pour into a fine strainer placed over a bowl and let sit. Lightly toss the strawberries occasionally to remove any pockets of excess liquid. Reserve the liquid for another use or discard (see FAQ above for alternate use of the liquid).

If using fresh strawberries, just hull, slice and toss with a teaspoon or two of sugar and cover. Let them sit at room temperature for a couple of hours, until nice and juicy.

Place strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree.

Reserve 3/4 cup puree for the cake. (If you are using the cooked puree method from the FAQ above, you will only use 1/2 cup puree.)

Use leftover puree to fill the cake or fold into the frosting, if desired (you will not have leftover puree if you use the cooked puree method). It's also fabulous spooned over ice cream... and eaten straight with a spoon.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 8- or 9-inch pans: spray inside with baking spray with flour (or use some sort of grease/flour combination).

In small bowl, combine puree, milk (if you used the cooked puree method in the FAQ above, you'll use 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of puree; if you did not cook your puree, use 1/4 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of puree), egg, vanilla and mix with fork until well blended. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs.

Add wet ingredients and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and hand beat for 30 more seconds.

Note: The batter will not get any pinker in the oven so if you're disappointed in the color from your berries, maybe consider adding a drop or two of pink or red food coloring.

Divide the batter evenly among the pans and smooth tops.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (time will vary). Let cakes rest in pan for about 10 minutes and turn out onto wire racks. Let cakes cool completely (about 2 hours).

Notes

I’m REALLY flattered at how much you like this cake. Really. Because it is TOTALLY one of my favorites. I feel the same way about strawberries. Mmm….. and you MUUUUUST tell me where you got that most BEAUTIFUL cake plate! Because now I lust it!!

Katie – Thanks! The cake plate is from Martha Stewart’s line at Macy’s. There are 3 in the set: 8, 10, and 12-inch. My mom could only find the 8 and 10-inch at Christmas because they temporarily sold out… I’m still looking for the 12 🙂

I always thought it was strange that there weren’t as many recipes for strawberry cakes as there should be. Martha Stewart has a good cupcake one that I’ve used. But now I have a go to layer cake one. Thanks!

This cake looks delicious, and I was just wondering if anyone has tried baking a sheet cake with this Fresh Strawberry cake recipe? I want to make my grandson’s birthday cake with this recipe because he loves strawberrys. Thanks! Tina Miller Artho

I just made it as a sheet cake because I have guys coming for dinner in 2 hours and I don’t have time to make it beautiful (and they’re guys and don’t care). It worked just fine – 9×13 pan took about 33-34 minutes in my oven.

This is a fantastic recipe! It is a lot like the cake my grandma would make for church suppers and socials. I haven’t found a recipe that tastes so much like hers and I just wanted to thank you for it.

You got me – I use a box of jello I think in mine, but it does call for real strawberries, at least! I have a TON of strawberries frozen from over the summer so I’ll have to try this! My dad loves strawberry cake.

Thanks so much for this recipe! You’re so right–I always look at strawberry cake and frosting recipes and I’m disappointed because they’re not really from scratch…and my whole reason of wanting to make the cake is having lots of strawberries! 🙂 This one looks delicious!

I just printed off a strawberry cake recipe from another blogsite and was looking for another to compare..and here you are! Thank you. This looks beautiful. You must have scaled up the recipe for three layers, yes? Could you share?

Some tips/tricks to I use to keep the crumbs to a minimum are:
-Make sure cake is COMPLETELY COOLED before frosting (cakes can crumb really easily
when warm because they are way softer than when left to cool completely). If you’re in
a hurry, you can speed the cooling by putting the cake in the fridge/freezer for 15- 20
mins–this also gives you time to make your frosting if you haven’t already.
-Lightly brush off existing crumbs from cake tops and sides. Heat some jelly/jam in a
microwave safe cup until melted. Quickly brush layers/sides with liquid and set aside
to cool. The jelly, as it cools, will help to form a “coating” that will seal in crumbs and
make frosting easier.

Susan – I made the recipe twice for this post and have an extra layer wrapped in the freezer (dessert, anyone?).

Little Miss Mel – The key to crumbless frosting is to do a ‘crumb coat’ – apply a very thin coating of frosting to the entire cake and let it set for 30 minutes. It will look absolutely awful but the frosting traps all the crumbs. Then frost the cake as usual – there shouldn’t be a crumb in sight!

Debra – I am so glad to hear that you guys enjoyed the cake! Those fondant lady bugs made for a fun project 🙂

Love your cake! I’ve made both Paula Deen’s and Sprinkle’s strawberry cake recipes both were good but I might have liked Paul Deen’s better. Yeah, it uses a box.

Strawberry season is starting up here so it’s time to break out the strawberry recipes. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I’m definitely going to give it a try as the kids do love strawberries & cake!
~ingrid

btw, that is a totally GREAT cake platter! Oh, and I meant to ask but what kind of frosting did you use? Recipe? THX!

This cake looks amazing! I love strawberries and am lucky enough to live near Plant City, FL (which is known for its strawberries). I really must find an excuse to try this recipe soon.
I also wanted to let you know I nominated your blog for an award. That’s just my way of saying thanks for all the great recipes and the wonderful blog you have! 🙂 You can pick up the award on my blog.

This cake is just too pretty for words. Splendid. I have a strawberry cake up on my blog, and I’m almost ashamed to admit that it’s made with cake mix. Thanks for giving me a from scratch alternative. Great shots too. It looks like the perfect slice!

Tanisha – I usually use 3 layers but I just make the original recipe twice every other time that I bake the cake and store the extra layer in the freezer for the next time. I’m sure I’ve made it far more complicated than it should be… I should probably just scale the recipe up by 50% 🙂

I’m looking at making this cake for a birthday this weekend. The recipe says it yields 2-8 in cakes. In the picture shown, there are three layers. Do I need to double the recipe to make 3 fluffy layers? What is the portion used in the illustration?

I have long wanted to recreate for my Mum’s birthday a neopolitan cake that she made for me on my birthday when I was little. The chocolate and white layers are easy, the pink has always held me back. Mum used red food colouring 🙁
I need to make a 9 inch cake, could you offer some help in adjusting the recipe?

Thank you Periwinkle for mentioning a neopolitan cake. I have been having a difficult time trying to decide what kind of cake to make for my son’s 2nd birthday next week. I think a neopolitan will be perfect! I would have never thought of that.

Thank you foodiebride for sharing this recipe. It is exactly the type of cake I like to serve my family.

Jill – I usually make the original recipe twice every other time that I bake the cake and store the extra layer in the freezer for the next time. If you don’t want to do that, you could increase the recipe by 50% and make 3 layers all at once.

Periwinkle – A Neopolitan Cake sounds wonderful! Good news is that you wouldn’t necessarily need to change the recipe. the 9-inch layers might be a tad shorter because the pan is just a bit larger. You have a few options: proceed normally through the recipe, torte the two layers into 4 (this will give the cake a little more height), or increase the entire recipe by 50% and go with a three layer cake.

Wow, this looks great! I was looking for a recipe and printed one with jello. Now i think i’ll try this one instead. I just MIGHT add red food coloring maybe, since it’s for a child and he may think pink is girly.

Just wanted to add – I made this cake for the birthday I mentioned and everyone was floored! Here is what my 24 year old daughter just IM’d me at work:

“Your strawberrry cake is the freakin best. It is the best cake I have EVER tasted! I like it better than chocolate even! And that is saying alot.YEAH! It’s SO freaking moist and just the exact right amount of sweet with fruity! I have NEVER had such a great cake before! I was totally wowed! FOR REAL!!!”

By the way, I didn’t add the food coloring and it was still pink. I used 9″ layers and cut them in half, pouring the extra puree on the cut sides with a frosting dam. I will post photos on my blog with a link to yours on 4/7/09. Check it out!

I made this cake on Sunday for my daughter’s birthday/Easter. Literally the best cake EVER. That is saying a lot because I don’t like cake. I will now call it the Strawberry Love cake.

I made a buttercream frosting and (oops) added too much puree which made it a Strawberry Ganache really. It was so good. This is my new favorite and “go to” cake. We live in Raspberry country and I WILL be trying out a raspberry version.

At last! A strawberry cake recipe that does not use a mix or Jello. I have strawberries in my garden and have been looking for a good cake recipe. I can’t wait to try this one. My dad’s 81st birthday is later this week and I want to make a him a “different” cake. As we all love cheesecake I’m using cream cheese frosting. I love the idea of doubling the recipe and freezing the extra layer.

This is exactly what I was thinking too!!! This is the first recipe that I haven’t seen use a mix, jello, or what they call “sweetened strawberry puree” I’m guessing most of those other recipes, the people but the puree already mixed. But I was wanting something where I could use fresh strawberries and make my own. This is what I found. I agree this is an awesome recipe!

I’m looking for a REAL strawberry cake for my daughter’s b’day. I’m so glad to have found ur post! Thanks!. One quick question, is there a reason for excluding the egg yolks from this recipe? Will adding 6 whole eggs (instead of just the whites) make a difference to the final product?

Oh, my. Just made this with fresh, very ripe summer strawberries. Since we picked up a flat of berries at the farm stand, we also did strawberry icing and strawberry filling (from Martha Stewart). It’s Father’s day and my husband loves strawberry cake. Wonderful. Very pink, moist and sweet. Heaven!! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Zarina. My guess would be that the yolks would cause the cake to be heavier/more dense since it’s additional fat. I don’t think that you could use 6 whole eggs and get the cake to turn out because of the 6 Tbsp volume difference: The volume of 6 egg whites is approx 3/4 cup of liquid. The volume of 6 whole eggs is approx 1 1/8 cup liquid. You *could* try using 4 large whole eggs (approx 3/4 cup) but I’ve never used whole eggs in this recipe. Results not guaranteed 🙂

Hi! I’ll add my thanks to the many others in the comments of this post. What a wonderful recipe! I’d was just getting goo and frustrated that every single recipe I found for strawberry cake called for either a white cake mix or strawberry jello, when I stumbled upon your recipe for an actual strawberry cake from scratch.

I made the cake earlier today and accompanied it with a lovely white chocolate frosting (this one, in case you’re interested. Turned out wonderful!

This recipe is great. I made it for my daughter’s birthday and everyone loved it. Although she doesn’t eat cake, she tasted this and liked it. Yes, that’s right, my daughter doesn’t eat cake but insists on a birthday cake for her birthday for her friends and family to enjoy. This one was the greatest and she ate it. Thanks.

I have a cake to make for a baby shower, and the grandmother asked for a strawberry marble cake(its a girl). Because its marble, any cake I try to make with a jello mix on the strawberry side would be to heavy, and because of the extreme difference in the cake density, it wouldn’t raise right.

I have been searching high and low on the internet for a recipe that did not involve jello or a box mix, not only for the above mentioned density, but to maintain my stubborn ‘i make everything 100% from scratch’ reputation! (I make box mixes for myself, not for friends 😛 )

I just came across this recipe and I think it will be perfect for a friend’s birthday coming up. One question: The recipe uses two 8-inch pans, but your picture has 3 layers. Did you 1 1/2 the recipe when you actually made the cake?

Hi–My daughter wants a strawberry horse cake for her birthday. I’m wondering if this will work in a 9×13 pan. I’m planning to cut the cake into the shape of a horse’s head before I frost and want to make sure this cake will be firm enough for that. I will probably freeze the cake before I cut it. Any thoughts?

Elena – it should be fine. I was going to recommend freezing it before carving but you’ve got that covered!

Eugenia – yep, most likely the juice in the berries. In recipes where I don’t use many strawberries or ones that aren’t maybe quite ripe enough (ie, strawberry bread), the color can sometimes end up more on the bland, pinkish-grey side.

I adapted a white cake recipe once, and it was a lot like this. Even looked a lot like your photo. I think this recipe fixed some of my mistakes, though, like mine was a little TOO moist (kinda fell in the center) because I didn’t decrease the milk enough in the original recipe. Also, I think I didn’t use quite as many strawberries as this recipe did.

I made strawberry frosting for it, too, by using pureed strawberries instead of vanilla or milk in regular vanilla buttercream. It doesn’t take much, maybe a quarter to a third cup? I’m not sure, since I never wrote it down. 🙂 I think it would work with a cream cheese frosting, too. Maybe even better, since with mine I had to add WAY too much sugar to get it to set.

I am sooooo excited! I too love to cook from scratch and was super happy to find your recipe. We are celebrating my mom’s 82nd birthday this weekend and she requested strawberry cake…from a mix! This will be much more delicious and healthier too. I think I’ll try the beet idea as I want it to be a bit “pinker”.
Cheers!

I made this awesome cake for my daughter’s 11th birthday at her request. It was simply delicious! I made your american buttercream frosting and folded in the strawberry puree–too good for words. It has become the new request for all birthdays in my family. Thanks for sharing. It was important to me to make it completely from scratch, and I upped the recipe by half to make the three layers. My entire family thanks you for posting this recipe!
Lady Logan

I just made this cake literally 30 minutes ago, and it is absolutely the best cake I have ever had! It has a wonderful taste, which is a given because of the strawberries. And the color is beautiful, a nice light pink which makes it look homemade and natural.

I made it for my sisters birthday, and she loves strawberry cake, but the store bought kind, and I wanted to make something homemade that would taste even better, and this recipe truly is!

I just made this and first will say that it is by far the MOISTEST cake I have ever made. Absolutely wonderful! But I had 2 major problems perhaps you could help with.

1. It fell in the middle and I’ve never had a cake do that before!
2. It didn’t really taste like strawberries. It tasted a bit “fruity” but not enough to scream “strawberry”. How defrosted should the strawberries be? Like super soft? I’m concerned that mine weren’t defrosted enough hence watering down the taste.

I just made this recipe as cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow. After cooling a bit, I ate one. I, too, don’t think it tastes much like strawberries. Fruity, yes. I used frozen strawberries that were a deep red. It did take forever for the purée to reduce from about 1 1/2 cups to 1/2 cup. I noticed that the reduction was very strong, but didn’t taste particularly strawberry like, nor did the batter.

Thank you so much for posting this recipe.. Like a lot of others here I have been looking for a recipe for strawberry cake for a while and was very disappointed to find so many that call for box mixes and jello. That just sounds plain gross to me. I like to make most of my meals from natural ingredients. Also I live in Italy so it is impossible to buy box mixes and jello. Any american food that I make has to be from basic ingredients. This cake is amazing! I have always loved the betty crocker strawberry cake mix since I was a kid but now that I am an adult I know better than to use box mixes. This cake was very easy to make and fun (my five year old helped). My husband told me it was the best dessert he has ever had and that is saying a lot because he loves to eat.. I used a package of marscapone cheese mixed with zuchero vellato (powdered sugar) for the icing and it was AMAZING.

Hi Natasha! I’m planning on making this cake for an upcoming baby shower, and was hoping to do a mascarpone topping. I’ve never thought or heard of mixing mascarpone with powdered sugar–that sounds wonderful! Can you tell me how much of each you used?
Thanks!

I’m making this cake for my daughters birthday. I made one layer in a heart shaped pan that she loves and used the rest of the batter for cupcakes she can take to school. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Thanks so much for this recipe, my son is red dye sensitive so anytime I have to make something pink or red it becomes a challenge to do it without artificial colors.

I am going to make this cake tomorrow for my daughter’s birthday. I love that it is actually from scratch as that is difficult to find. Does anyone know of a healthier frosting recipe (less butter and sugar)? Would a whipped cream frosting go well with this cake? Thanks!

Wow I made these last week for my birthday and they were awesome! I did tweak the recipe a bit and added extra strawberries and some lemon zest. But wow what a great recipe. Will definitely make these again. I also frosted them with cream cheese frosting. Simply delicious! http://tinypic.com/r/rhibub/5

I was wondering about using fresh strawberries: after the strawberries have been macerated in the sugar for a couple of hours, do i still drain the strawberries through a strainer and then puree the strawberrie, or do i just puree the strawberries with the juice?

This recipe is the bomb!! I made cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday and they were delicious!! This recipe is a keeper! Thank you for posting it. With all the processed food products these days, it is so refreshing to have a “from-scratch” recipe to share.

i tried this recipe but it turned out very greasy. I followed the measurement and the procedure step by step but still it was too oily. BUt the flavor is really good. Next time I’ll try to cut the butter see if it helps.

I tried this cake for my daughter’s birthday and I used the leftover puree to drizzle on top with a homemade whip cream frosting and it was amazing! Thank you for the awesome recipe. I did cook it in a 9×13 pan and it was same temp and cook time as the round cake! thank you again, it has been added to my berry favorite recipes!

If I wanted to make a sheet cake using a 9 x 13 roasting pan, would this recipe be enough to fill a pan this size? Would the heaviness of this recipe make it hard to take out of the pan after it cools?

Linda – the recipe will make one 9×13 or two layer (8 or 9 inch). I haven’t personally made the cake in a 9×13 but I know others have – no one has mentioned any trouble getting it out of the pan. Good luck!

Oh wow, this is just fabulous!! Thank you for a NATURAL cake- nothing here but goodness. I am going to make this for my son’s birthday. Made a trial run tonight and really, it is so great. Light as air.

Thank you for doing all the work of creating this recipe.
I am having a strawberry social on Sunday with 25 people attending. I was surprised to find all those jello/cake mix versions. As a former 4H’er farm kid who grew up in the 50’s & 60’s and became a restaurant reviewer, it is always horrifying to see what people consider to be good food.
My guests will be delighted with these strawberry cupcakes — and strawberry short cake, strawberry/rubharb mousse and strawberry ice cream with fresh strawberrys!
Thank you again.
Eve

I’ve made this twice in as many weeks. So delicious and moist, as everyone’s said. This recipe is a keeper. I’m inspired to bake from scratch more often– I’m even leaving the stand mixer on the counter! Thank you!

I want to use an 8″ round by 3″ deep cake pan…will it work? Will I have to decrease the temp of the oven, increase the time? Will it dry out the edges? I’ve got a flat of fresh juicy strawberries just waiting to be used…can’t wait to try this out!

Jennifer – the only cake I’ve ever attempted in the same manner was a 6″ carrot cake baked in a 3″ pan rather than two 2″ pans- and I turned the oven down 25 degrees and set the timer for the original cooking time. I did the skewer test when the timer went off and then judged how much time was left by how wet the center of the cake was. Good luck!

Jen, I don’t know why it couldn’t be baked in a bundt pan. I’ve never done it with this particular recipe so I don’t have any worthwhile advice on the cooking time. If I were doing it, I’d just set the timer for 5 minutes short of the suggested cooking time and then have a skewer nearby to be able to start checking for doneness. After that first peek, you’ll probably get a good idea if you need to go 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or even longer. Good luck!

Best cake ever! Seriously!
Apart from wanting to make a strawberry cake from scratch because I *like* making things from scratch I also had the challenge of being from Denmark – I’d be reluctant to use cake mixes and jellos we have here as they are different from the American ones, and then who knows how many test runs I’d have to do to make an acceptable cake…
As I had to make two cakes and was running out of time I made a double portion and filled one full portion of batter in each pan, then I put both pans in the oven. Baking time was around 40-45 minutes; I switched the top and bottom cake every 15 minutes. The one originally in the bottom took 5 minutes longer. Then I split the cakes in two layers each with a thread. Worked like a charm 🙂

I tried this, I made it for a bake sale. I tasted some of it that I had cut off to make it even for frosting.

I had added more strawberries, but I’m ending up it tastes like just plain flour with a hint of strawberries. It tastes alright, but I think I’m gonna cut down on the flour a bit and see if that helps.

Melissa – If the strawberries are good and ripe, try letting them sit with the sugar for a longer period, even overnight in the fridge. if I can’t get my hands on ripe and juicy strawberries, I hit up the frozen section for strawberries. The freezing/thawing process makes it easier to release the juice. Good luck! It really is a tasty cake when the strawberries cooperate!

I am making a two tier cake for a friend who is having a small wedding. She wants strawberry cake and I like your recipe and all the great reviews you have gotten. How many recipes would you make to bake 2 10-inch layers and 2 6-inch layers? And, do you think a meringue buttercream would go well? Thanks for your help! I can’t wait to try it. I think I am going to make cupcakes tonight to try it. My kids will love me!

Julie – the recipe is standard yield so 1 recipe would make enough to bake in 4 6-inch pans. Doubling the recipe would yield enough batter for a 10-inch cake. I love making Swiss meringue bc, so I think it would taste great!

Thank you so much for posting this recipe! It was really hard to find a from scratch strawberry cake. When I made this cake I used a jar of Nutella to frost it and topped it with strawberries. It was amazingly good!!

This was NOT a good recipe at all!! I made this cake for my family it the taste was just awful. I followed the recipe perfectly. I have been making cakes here lately from scratch and I made an apple one and it wonderful and then I tried this one and it was terrible. You might want to fix a few things to make it taste better or look and see if there is a typo or something.

This recipe looks great. My daughter is requesting a “pink cake” for her birthday, so I am going to try this. Can you recommend a frosting? I’d love to know your thoughts on this. We aren’t big on overly sweet and fondant would be too difficult for me. Also, I was curious as to why you do not need to beat the egg whites separately first. Would you recommend this? Thank you so much, can’t wait to tell you how it turns out!

Maria – I think a cream cheese frosting would be great. The recipe is based on the Cook’s Illustrated White Cake recipe and they take the odd step of beating the egg whites. I’m not certain of the reason behind the yummy madness.

@foodiebride, As this is based on a white cake recipe that is (i assume) the reason for only whites. The beating of whites seperately is for a texture reason but if it is only for color that wouldn’t be necessary. Based on that I would assume substituting whole eggs would be acceptable as long as the liquid amount is the same?

I was wondering what you thought about subbing almond extract for vanilla extract? I had strawberry cake at a wedding and it was so good but it had a very unique taste and I think it may have been almond. I would love your opinion. Thanks!

@Stephanie, I *love* almond extract and there are few baked goods wouldn’t be made better by adding a few drops. I think 1/2 tsp of almond extract, maybe 3/4 tsp, would be plenty. If you try it, you’ll have to tell me how it works out!

Thanks for a wonderful recipe! I just made this for my daughter’s Strawberry Shortcake b-day party today. It was received with rave reviews. I cheated and didn’t make the frosting from scratch but I did add some of the reserve juice to make it pink and strawberry tasting. If I weren’t so full I’d be ready for another piece.

I made this cake last night for our family’s Valentine dinner and we loved it!

I halved the recipe and baked in a 6″ round which I sliced in half (and had to take the top off, of course, to level and taste test lol). I had a cup of leftover buttercream from another cake last week that I put between the layers and on top along with the remaining puree. I made it on a whim so I did not have enough strawberries to put slices between the layers. Guess I’ll just have to make it again. I think next time I will try this with whip cream frosting or even as an ice cream cake. The smaller cake was perfect for the four of us.

This recipe is a keeper! Thank you so much for posting it. Later this week, I think I’l be trying your Mongolian Beef recipe.

I made this cake for my daughters birthday, and let’s just say i’ll never make cake from a box again! super moist and delicious…i frosted her cake with a toasted coconut cream cheese icing (from scratch) and made a great combo!

I was very excited to find a natural way (avoiding red food dye) to make a pink cake for my daughter’s very pink birthday party. Unfortunately, though, the cake did not come out pink. Not even remotely pink. I even added more puree than the recipe called for. I used frozen strawberries, and although they are a very nice red color, they are not particularly sweet. This accounts for the lack of strawberry taste, but not really the lack of pink color. I’m disappointed, but hope a pink strawberry frosting will make up for the lacklustre color of the cake.

Hey there, just made this cake yesterday and im wondering if you dont have a typo in your directions. You are using 2 8″ rounds? I dont know how that could possibly work. I used two 9″ because God hates me and i cant find 8s anywhere but online. But my 9″ puffed to the top at baking time. 8s would have over flowed. also you are picturing a 3 layer cake. So i am assuming you used 3 8’s is that right?

@Katie: I am obviously not FoodieBride, but I just wanted to mention this because I saw it in her directions – she instructs to use foil (or BakeEven strips) around the outside of the pan. These are meant to help the cake bake more evenly and prevent it from puffing in the middle (and therefore you don’t have to level the top – or not level it as much). I’m guessing maybe that was the problem with your cake? I can’t be totally sure, but I thought I’d mention it. Hope you figure it out!

Ab fab recipe. I followed it exactly except I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour. I adjusted for it as recommended in numerous cookbooks and on numerous websites (for every 1 cup of cake flour use 1 cup MINUS 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour). I added a bit more puree to the batter (maybe a quarter cup). For the recommended icing I used a bit less sugar and a little puree. Really turned out awesomely. If you follow the recipe and bake properly you will be so rewarded with a lovely cake!

I just made this cake….Next time I will reduce the sugar! It turned out well…Haven’t made the frosting because I think it’s a bit sweet. I am pregnant and so I probably need to reduce the sugar intake. Thanks for this recipe 🙂 I used the gold baking pan from William Sonoma and just sprayed it with baking spray and it worked out great!

ok, you are going to wish I never found your site by the end of the day….sorry. I’ve read all 131 comments on this post and couldn’t find anything about the jelly in between the layers. (perhaps I missed the explanation) but I was wondering first what you used, was it just the puree or did you make a preserve w/ corn starch? next)-did you sandwich the puree between a thin layer of the buttercream? I’ve used a puree on a cake in the past and the cake just soaked it all in, so I’m trying to avoid that from happening.

I ended up thickening up the leftover puree on the stove with a little flour (I was out of cornstarch). I, too, was worried about the plain puree soaking in (since I knew the cake would be sitting around for several days before we finished it). The thickened puree tasted just about the same and was more pink than bright red but it held up wonderfully between the cakes-after a few days hardly any of it soaked in at all.

Hi! My friend requested a strawberry cake for her birthday and I tell you I had a hard time finding a recipe that is not a box mix or include gelatin, eww! i am happy to stumble across this recipe, but as I do not eat eggs I was wondering if you had a recommendation for no eggs? usually when baking, I substitute 1/4 cup applesauce for each egg called for. do you think that might work for this recipe, or should I try omitting the eggs all together?
Thanks! 🙂

Jessica, I personally wouldn’t sub all of the egg white with applesauce. Adding 3/4 cup applesauce makes me think you’ll end up with a heavy applesauce cake instead of a fluffy strawberry cake. Do they make an EggBeater version of egg whites? I’d consider that sub first but I’ve never omitted the egg whited from this recipe so I can’t say for sure.

I just wanted to add to the list of comments that I made this cake the other day, with cream cheese frosting, and it was wonderful, moist, and delicious. I am going to make it again this weekend – but as cupcakes. Thank you for a strawberry cake recipe that wasn’t cake mix and jello!

Hope this is not a crazy question, but why wrap the outside of the cake pans in heavy duty tinfoil? I’m going to make this cake tomorrow and I can’t wait! It sounds so delicious and I have some fresh strawberries that I can’t wait to use!!! Thanks for this recipe from scratch. I can’t stand box recipes!

Amy – not a crazy question! I use those Bake-Even strips every time I bake a cake. It keeps the batter near the edge of the pan cooler for longer so that the cake bakes and rises evenly. I almost never have a dome (or much of one) to level when I bake cakes. Less wasted scraps to munch on while I’m frosting the cake. It’s definitely not mandatory, but I believe they help a ton.

Thank you for sharing this recipe! What a fun website you have here.
My daughter’s third birthday is next weekend, and she very clearly told me she wanted strawberry cake. A google search led me to many recipes calling for jello, but I kept looking until I found your recipe. As a trial, I baked two nine-inch rounds. The cake stuck in the older, cheaper pan I have, so I’m replacing that before I bake the “real” cake. The stuck cake was a crumbly mess, but I put it on top, and the frosting helped me make the cake presentable. I used the cream cheese frosting from your red velvet cupcakes. My husband and I aren’t big fans of cake, and we both agreed it is the best cake we have ever tasted. Most importantly, little Lucy loved it! After three days sitting on the counter, the cake was still moist! I am a former cake mix mom who is starting to figure out homemade is worth a little extra effort. Thank you!

I made your strawberry cake last night and now I have two very stinky, broken ovens! I am a fairly confident baker and I have been looking for a good strawberry cake recipe from scratch, with real strawberries, so I was excited to try this one. Aaugh! I followed the recipe exactly, and the cakes volcanoed over everywhere in my oven! What was left did not even resemble a cake. So I self-cleaned my oven, and now they won’t even turn on. *sigh* I had high hopes. I have nothing against you, I just wanted to tell you my sob story!

Sounds like your oven may have a heating proble,. I haven’t heard of a cake volcanoing like that unless it was way too hot. The fact that it’s unresponsive right now suggests that maybe the electrical unit might have been burning out.

I’m in the process of making this cake for a dinner get together today. I had a bunch of strawberries laying around (still fresh) so I decided to use them before they went bad. I read some other scratch recipes on other sites and the majority do require gelatin or gello; however, I found a substitute. Agar agar is an asian style gelatin and I was debating trying it out. I am also going to use the 4 whole eggs instead of wasting the yolks. I was also considering adding red food coloring to give it that reddish pink color. Also what do you think of adding a little vegetable oil or sour cream to the batter??? Just wondering.

I’m a *big* fan of using buttermilk, sour cream, or greek yogurt in place of whole milk in baking recipes. I don’t think I’ve tried it here, but it wouldn’t be a substitution that I’d be worried about going in. Let me know how it works!

Thank you for sharing this recipe. My friend’s husband surprised her with wedding vows renewal for their anniversary. I made this cake for the reception afterwards. I had extra strawberry puree so I filled the cake with the puree and add it to the frosting. Everyone liked it a lot. I made it again over the weekend, but I mixed it differently. I creamed the butter and sugar, added each egg yolk at a time, then I added alternated adding flour and liquid, starting and ending with flour. Then I beat the egg whites and added the sugar. Then folded in the egg whites. The cakes did not sink in the middle and it seemed more moist. I love this recipe. I want to try other berry cake recipes (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry). Thanks again for a great recipe.

Came across your blog via googling “strawberry cake from scratch” and thank god I did! I made 24 cupcakes and used 4 eggs and they were uh-may-zing..I also used super ripe straight from the farm strawberries- which I think was also key. I topped it with steawberry cream cheese icing (using the extra puree) these were a huge hit at the lunch I took them to.. A couple of other things… Was out of cake flour so had to use AP and because I was worried about it coming out too dense since I used the whole egg.. I separated the whites and beat them until they had soft peaks and folded them in..they came out light and moist and fluffy..

Any reason that this recipe doesn’t call for beating butter and sugar together prior to adding in other ingredients?

I haven’t even tried this cake yet and I already want to thank you! My girls can’t have red food dye (they’re “allergic” to it…makes them bounce off the walls) so I was getting frustrated trying to find a strawberry cake recipe that didn’t call for strawberry gelatin! I tried my own strawberry cake a while ago…FAIL! Can’t wait to try this one!!!!!!!!!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was assigned the cake making for my niece’s birthday and was told she wanted a strawberry cake, but not a fake strawberry cake. I thought, “This will be easy, no problem.” Well was I wrong! I can’t tell you how long I searched for a recipe that didn’t have jello in it, or came from a box! This was the first one I found, and I am so happy 🙂 Thank you very much!

I am so so sad. I made this cake for my husband’s birthday last year and he loved it so much he requested it for his party tomorrow. I made it TWICE thinking I missed something on the first try but both times I’ve ended up with something that is closer to a cookie than a cake and it’s too late at night to try again. 🙁

Like some of the others, Thank you in advance. I have been looking and looking for a Blueberry cake actually and could not find one…I had decided to take a strawberry cake and convert it to a blueberry cake, and like so many others I was only finding the semi homemade cake mixes. I love to bake, because I can’t cook, and love to bake all homemade. I can not wait to try this recipe and hoping I don’t screw it up in the process with making it a blueberry cake. My son is turning 3 on July 2, he doesn’t ask for much. But the other day I was sharing a strawberry cake with him, that we bought, and he looks at me and says “Dade needs a blueberry cake.” So then I decided to make it for him. I was about to give up when I came across your recipe and blog. Thank you. If you have any suggestions on how not to screw it up that would be greatly appreciated.

Just out of curiousity–could you sub oil for the butter in this recipe? I don’t want to mess this up as it looks delicious, but I have made butter cakes in the past and they always seem to be dense-oil seems to make things more moist, not to mention a little heart-healthier! 😉 I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I am so glad I found a cake recipe that has good reviews that doesn’t call for jello, food coloring and other junk-I try to make everything from scratch and natural for my family so I am really hoping this is as good as it looks! :)THANKS!

Well, I tried your cake for a special occasion yesterday and all I can say is yes it tasted good but what a total flop. I do not consider myself a novice baker. I bake almost every day and I did not like the way this cake went together and I told my husband when I was putting it in the oven it was not going to be right. I followed the directions to a “T” and if I decide to try it again I think I will try a different mixing method. No, I did not over or under beat the cake, I just think the way it is put together is wrong. I had to make one of my old standby cakes and add strawberry puree to the batter, they turned out perfect, but your flavor was a bit tastier, just very disappointing that it did not turn out.

Sorry you didn’t like it. It definitely has a unique mixing method that Cook’s Illustrated swears by. I’ve never had any issues with it but every time I make it, I think “I’m going to mix the ingredients the ‘regular way’ next time.” And I always forget.

I made this over the 4th of July weekend along with your Quick Buttercream Frosting recipe and it was a hit! Everyone loved it! I added some blueberries and strawberries on top to make it festive for the holiday. So, so good – thank you for this recipe. I know I’ll be making it again soon!

Camille – you need 3/4 cup strawberry puree for the cake. Frozen strawberries tend to have more liquid to drain away but using fresh or frozen, you should have a little over the required amount for the cake.

I, like others, got a 4th birthday “order” for a strawberry cake. In my case, it was a “Snow White strawberry cake.” I found this w/ that “strawberry cake from scratch” search, and was excited to try. Even sliced very thin, this disappeared completely at the party. Completely. I had to swipe my daughter’s unfinished piece to share w/ my H (she never eats a whole piece of any cake). But it got a huge thumbs up from the birthday girl and others, including H, who isn’t a “cakey” person. Will be making again soon, and thinking about translating it to other fruit…peaches might be first up this summery July.

My boyfriend asked for a strawberry cake for his birthday. I made this one (dairy-free because he has a lactose allergy), served it with homemade (lactose-free) ice cream…. and everyone who ate it absolutely LOVED it!! Thanks for this great recipe…I’m all about making things from scratch! Keep up the good work 🙂

***** (Five star rating) Thank you so much for this recipe. This was just what I was looking for. I needed a summer cake that was not too sweet for a Korean friend’s party, and she loved this. I found a whipped cream frosting that had cream cheese in it as well to make it more stable for the summer heat, put some chopped sweetened strawberries on top of the frosting in the middle layer, and served the left-over strawberry puree as a sauce on the side. It was such a hit! Also, I understand why it is important to use the bake strips/aluminum foil around the pans in baking. I neglected to do that and it browned unevenly. But still tasted great and was gone in about 5 minutes at the party. A real crowd-pleaser!

I made this cake and it really did turn out delicious! I used cream cheese frosting for the top, and I flavored that with the strawberry puree’ also. One secret to making the cake more pink without adding dye, is to throw a few fresh or frozen (depending on the season) cherries to the puree’. They will darken the color without changing the flavor too much.

I just made a trial version of this cake today for my sister to taste for her upcoming birthday. I halved the recipe and just put the batter in a 8×8 inch pan. After baking and letting it cool for a little over two hours, I took it out and it turned out really dense. I made the whole egg version but whipped the two egg whites separately. Could using the whole eggs be the cause of it being so dense?

Wasn’t as pink as your picture but I added cream cheese, as well as some of the puree, to the icing and wow. The cake was super moist, the icing was super delicious. I took advice from an earlier baker about creaming the butter and sugar together, adding a yolk at a time and then folding in the egg whites (after beating them) and that has brought me to this super moist cake. Great recipe!

I have always done cakes the fast easy way but have gotten into doing cakes as a business. I was looking for a raspberry cake recipe and found this recipe. I think I will try doing a decorated cake from scratch for a change!! Hope it works with raspberrys also!

Hi I have a question I hope you can answer and soon!!! 😀 I want to make this cake for my daughter’s first birthday, happen to be HORRIBLE at math. I want to do a three tier (actually a 9x9x3, 7x7x3, and 4x4x3) and just want to make sure we (I called hubby lol) got the right amounts, when adding 50% 🙂

Thank you so much! I used a Pampered Chef tbsp measurer when I did the vanilla, and I don’t know if it leaked into the back area, would definitely have added 1.4- 1/2 tsp too it, but there is a tad too much vanilla for me, hubby says its good. 🙁 With that being said, I definitely ate the top layer 🙂 The only other thing is it didn’t fill up even the 9x9x3, it’s only about 2 inches. When I went to the website for the pans, I need 20.25 cups of batter. I would like to make my little girl, an additional top piece so she can have all to herself. Total I would need 22.50, I am completely and utterly new to this. Any suggestions? 🙂 I am about to attempt to make another round, I only ended up making the bottom layer before kiddos woke. Onto another note, I am going to use that Vanilla cake recipe, I have a birthday cake to make for this weekend! You have such amazing recipes, thank you so much for sharing with us!!!

Sheri I noticed the same thing, I have decided to make it this weekend for a friends birthday party. She is used to using the Betty Crocker Strawberry and said it must be that it’s homemade? I have never made a cake from scratch. The only thing I could find about lightening the cake up a little was milk…I am not sure though.

One more thing, when I put the butter cream on the cake it didn’t work so well. Well it went on nicely but this being my first time icing a cake I am chucking it up to me doing it wrong. 🙂 But I wanted to know if you could use a fondant on this cake? I read somewhere that if your cake has a layer that requires refrigeration it’s best not to use fondant. What do you think about using it? Thanks again!

Ericka – What happened with the frosting? Was it hard to spread/too thick? And I’ve used fondant on this cake before several times with no issues. The cake was always completely eaten within the first two days so I don’t think it would have suffered any from lack of refrigeration.

I’m so glad I found this- We are just starting to make our own cake pops and we love to work with real, organic ingredients. Next week, we wanted to try strawberry cake pops with white chocolate coating- I think I’ll probably do a buttercream frosting to mix with your cake recipe. When we make them, I’ll link back to your page so folks can see where the natural strawberry cake recipe came from! Thanks! The cake is a beautiful color!

I am making this for an 8 year olds birthday cake in the am, THANK YOU so much for a Strawberry Cake with NO jello – I was amazed that I had to look thru hundreds of recipes to find it. Strawberry Cake has been frequently requested in our house (5 kids) and the chickens laid lots of eggs finally so your cake should be a huge hit!!!
I was wondering, I have fresh (true) buttermilk and would like to use it in the place of the milk, good idea or not??? Thanks!!

Athena, I’ve never ever gotten my hands on real buttermilk so I can’t say exactly how it would turn out. BUT there’s only 1/4 cup of it in the recipe – that small amount probably wouldn’t do too much damage, you know?

We made cake pops using your cake and cream cheese frosting recipe! They came out great!!! Both recipes really worked for the cake pops- And, I can’t wait to try your cake and frosting recipe as a frosted cake. 🙂 I have folks coming back to your site for the actual recipes since I didn’t want to misrepresent anything and I wanted to give full credit to you guys! Such awesome recipes. Thanks!

Tried the cake out for my sister’s birthday. I found it to be was more reminiscent of corn bread than I would have liked, but it DID have a very good berry flavor, especially for using fresh strawberries. Any suggestions on how to make it a tad fluffier?

I cannot wait to make this cake. My son is turning 5 in a few weeks and he wants a strawberry cake. Red is his favorite color and strawberries are his favorite fruit. Only problem is that he is allergic to all food coloring, especially reds. Thank you so much for your recipe and I will let you know how it turns out!

So excited to try this. I’ve made strawberry cake from the box a few times and my honey says its his favorite. Not a fan of using the box mix except in those moments you mention, 9 pm, craving something sweet stat! I make everything else from scratch so if I can recreate his favorite cake….I will truly be the kitchen goddess! thank you!

I’m so late in reviewing this, but I just had to leave you a note of thanks. I made this for my 2 girls’ summer birthday party, and it was AMAZING!!! I used fresh, in-season, delicious strawberries and topped it with my favorite cream cheese frosting (with pureed strawberries mixed in). I’m telling you, the cake disappeared. Everyone raved about it. Thank you so much. I will definitely be making this again. and again…. 🙂

I tried this cake twice. The colour did not come out right. You would think I made it with Brown Sugar. Cake way too dense. Is it suppose to be light like a chiffon cake or bit heavier like a pound cake? What could I be doing wrong?

The color has everything to do with the strawberries used – the prettiest pink cake comes during strawberry season. Or with strawberries from the freezer section that come packed in the concentrated liquid (just be sure to drain, but not rinse). The cake should be very light – the recipe is based off of Cook’s Illustrated Classic White Layer Cake, which is a light and fluffy cake.

I am going to bake this for my little princess 4th years old birthday as she request for a strawberry cake and would like to know if this is a sponge cake as i have baked and throw many sponge cake 🙁 does not rise or not spongy.
Just would like to know when do i put the combine puree, milk, egg, vanilla. is this refer to item 6 add liquid? Also you mentioned in a bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and user mixer to beat until combine before adding the butter. is that right? Thanks.

YAY! I can’t wait to try this recipe! I am making a topsy turvy cake, bottom chocolate, middle strawberry, top vanilla and I hated seeing so many “fake” strawberry cakes and that “strawberry cake” mix from a box is DISGUSTING! Gross, makes me cringe just thinking of it. Thanks for a real recipe! I will definitely let you know how it turns out!!

I tried the recipe and follow the directions, but why did the center sank? *tears* and I didn’t quite get the strawberry pink, mine turned pink-brown hahaha. Was that the strawberries? But for the taste, its great!

Anastasia, it was the strawberries. The color comes from the strawberries alone. In the off season, I find that frozen strawberries usually give a better color than the “fresh” ones which are usually underripe and from half a world away. A cake will sink in the center if there is too much liquid in the batter or it was over mixed. Sorry it didn’t totally work out for you!

I find the instructions here a little confusing. In step 5, you’re mixing the puree with stuff in a small bowl and then in a separate bowl you’re doing other things with sifted flower. Then in step 6 it says to “add liquids” to the second bowl. Does it mean the stuff from the small bowl or is the small bowl used only to put in between the cake layers? If so, why is that in the same step (5) as something that shouldn’t be mixed together? Or am I misunderstanding, and in step 3 when it says “use leftover puree to fill the cake” that’s the part that gets used between the layers? The last step ends with baking the cake, but it doesn’t talk about putting it all together…

Bart – you mix the liquids together (puree, eggs, etc) and then add the liquids to the dry ingredients. If you have extra puree leftover that wasn’t used for the cake batter recipe, then you can use that to put between layers of the cake if you wish.

This is the first blog comment I’ve ever posted and I haven’t even made it yet, that’s how excited I am. I’m thinking about beating the egg whites and folding them in. Would that ruin my cake? I’m also going to use a white chocolate frosting, cause white chocolate and strawberries are the ultimate combination. I’m also planning on wrapping the outside of the cake with white chocolate cigarillos ant topping it with fresh strawberries to give it a classy look for the bday party. Can’t wait!!!

i am so excited to try this, have been looking for a strawberry cake recipe that did not include jello or jams for some time. i am gonna make this for my daughters birthday, but modify it into a sugar free cake with sugar free whipped cream frosting.

Thanks for the gluten free version. I am from Bangalore and planning to try this out. Looks difficult to find the Ingredients. I would prefer to have a for a smaller value. Instead of 2 1/4cups, I am planning to to do with 1 1/4 cups. Would you help providing me for that.

Anyone knows about a place where I can buy the xanthan gum and potato starcj and tapioca flour.

I made this cake tonight for my daughter’s 2nd birthday, since all of the comments have been nothing but raving about this recipe. Iam alittle disappointed to be honest. It tastes like a white cake and cant even see the strawberries! When I take a bite, I can only taste the seeds of the strawberries mixed in the cake. The cake doesnot look like the picture. Its not pink by any means, more off white. I dont know what I’ll do now. I guess I will stick to another recipe I know that is alot better than this one!!

Try the recipe in the April issue of Southern Living. I have made the Strawberry/Lemonade cake 3 times since I received my magazine. DELICIOUS. There is also a strawberry sheet cake recipe in this issue which I am going to make today for a cook-out.

Hi! I love to bake myself and asked my husband what kind of cake he wanted this week and the answer was strawberry. I came across your blog in search of a scratch strawberry cake. Let me say the whole time I was making the cake I couldn’t wait to taste the cake. I used a 9×13 glass pan and the cake was a touch warm when I put the icing on. I also used your buttercream frosting and added a couple of tablespoons of the puree. We just split a small piece because we couldn’t wait for dinner first. The cake and icing was THE BEST scratch cake I have ever made. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your strawberry cake recipe! Needless to say I will be visiting your blog more often and trying your various recipes. Thanks so much.

I just love this recipe. I had this basket of strawberries sitting in the fridge on the borderline of going bad. I just thought I need a strawberry cake. Can’t wait to try it, gonna go make one right now. And those thing 1 and thing 2 cupcakes are way too cute, my nieces would go crazy for them.
-Gina-

I made this into cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. The batter tasted like strawberry ice cream! Haven’t tried the cupcakes yet. Only thing was that they didn’t get the nice rounded cupcake top, but instead were more flat on top (they did rise and spilled over the top of the cups, just no rounding).

I also only had a bag of frozen strawberries that was 14oz and after draining I still had more then 3/4 cup puree.

Hi,
My husband and I love fresh strawberry cake…had it at our wedding, but cannot find anyone to make it now 🙁
I was wondering if you could sub rice or quinoa flour for the cake flour and it still turn out well?
Thanks,
Jeanette

Made this for my daughter’s 2nd birthday and it turned out great! I upped all the ingredients by 1 1/2 X what the recipe called for to get that desired 3-tiered effect. I had bought a bag of strawberries that were 32 oz, I pureed them all but still had some I didn’t use. I’m not a fan of buttercream so I made cream cheese icing instead. Everyone raved about it!!! I’d certainly recommend this to anyone who wanted to make a deliciously pure, straightforward cake with just the right amount of strawberry flavor.

I am planning on making it this week for a friend’s bday. However, I wanted to bake the cake over the weekend and freeze it so I can ice it the morning of before I go to work. Do you think it is ok to freeze?
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Thank you!

hello, i attempted to make this cake in the form of cupcakes.. and so far, sadly to say its not working out 🙁 from the get-go the batter seemed a bit too watery, and now it doesnt seem like the cupcakes are rising. also, when i check the cupcakes, there is excessive amounts of steam coming up from them. any idea what i did wrong?

I made this cake yesterday. Well I started it yesterday…Anyway it was different baking experience. The cake was not nearly done enough after 25 minutes so I baked it another 15. They seemed soft but the toothpick came out clean so I took them out of the oven. They were hard to remove from the pan but that may be my fault because I let them sit overnight. (Fell asleep waiting for them to cool). When I finally got them out the cakes were lopsided and started to sink a little in the middle. I didn’t have any vanilla flavoring left for the icing so I used a dash of lemon and a dash of rum flavorings. And I only had two cups of powdered sugar. The icing was divine nonetheless. I put some of the strawberry puree in the center of the cake and then frosted over that. It gives a fruity moist filling. However, this is the ugliest cake I ever made but the best tasting strawberry cake I ever had. I call it my butt-ugly strawberry cake. Oh yeah, I had four egg whites left from another recipe and used those and one whole egg in the cake batter. Thanks for the recipe.

I was happy to find your recipe in time for Valentine’s Day. . . my family loves strawberry cake and I wanted to make a good and proper scratch cake. The flavor was outstanding–well done! I did experience a problem with the center of both layers collapsing though. A quick and unrelated search through Cookwise (by Shirley Corriher–fab book if you don’t already have it) allowed me to stumble on the words “Fallen Baked Goods”. I learned that too much baking powder can actually be counter productive and cause the cake to fall. She recommends a ratio of 1 tsp baking powder per cup of flour (she gives a max of 1.25 tsp/cup of flour). I thought of your ratio of double that–2 tsp/ 1 1/8 cup of flour and immediately wondered if this was the problem. I will try again with 2 tsp of baking powder and see if I have better success. Just thought I’d mention this for your consideration, as well as your readers. I just filled the gap with fresh strawberries–not a bad way to go! I also found that 25 minutes was nowhere near enough time–I left them in for an additional 10 or 15 minutes. Thanks again for a truly delicious cake!!!

Hi! I got lost. Please help! So I puree 24 oz of strawberry. But I am only suppose to put 3/4 cup of puree into the cake mix? What do you mean use the rest of the puree to fill the cake?

I tried this recipe. But I put all 24 oz of puree into the cake mix. It didn’t turn out bad but I want to bake this cake the right way. This is my first time baking. Any help would be great. Thank you!

Yes! Only 3/4 cup of the puree goes into the cake batter. You can use the rest to put between the layers of the cake, if you want, by either spreading it on top of the first layer or by mixing it into some frosting and spreading that over the top of the first layer (before topping with the 2nd layer).

Thank you for your reply. I will try again. Even though I did not follow the recipe correctly, the cake turned out quite good. It was sweet but not too sweet. Maybe I will get it right next time. Thank you!

Love the site and the recipe! How long the cake lasts? I want to do it on a Friday, cover it with fondant in the Saturday to serve in Sunday. Do you think it will keep fresh? Do I need to refrigerate it? Thank you so much for the site and help!

I made this recipe over the weekend for my son’s 2nd birthday, and it was so good! I baked it in a 13×9 pan for 30-35 minutes and then used it to construct a fire truck cake. Everybody was impressed with a strawberry cake made with natural ingredients! 🙂

Just used this for cupcakes for my girls’ 5th birthday party. Oh my god….so good. Moist flavorful. Wow. Used 4 whole eggs and AP flour (adjusted as suggested in another comment.) Perfect. Tons of compliments. I used a different icing. But added some if the strawberry puree.

Hi I made this cake last your cake recipe last night but found the cake did not have lots of strawberry flavour to it, the cake is lovely and fluffy and moist so a great recipe but just want it to have a bit more of a strawberry zaaz to it
Thanks

Hi,
I just found your site, and this recipe through pinterest. After searching for a fresh strawberry cake recipe this one by far looks the best. I do have one question though, do you think it would be okay to add chunks of fresh strawberries in the batter along with the strawberry puree. I like the idea of having little bits of strawberry in the cake. How much, if any, would you suggest adding without altering the texture.
Thank you so much for your help!

The liquid from the fresh strawberries will bake out and weigh the cake down quite a bit. If you want strawberry chunks, consider adding sliced strawberries between the cake layers instead, as long as you plan to eat the cake within a couple of days.

Would there be any reason I couldn’t replace the milk in the recipe with the strawberry juice that was strained out of the puree? I can’t bear the idea of skipping the extra strawberry flavor and color from the juice unless it’s really going to mess things up. I’ve got some leftover lemon icing in the freezer that I wanted to beat into some butter to make a lemon buttercream, and I thought with a good from-scratch strawberry cake recipe I could make some strawberry-lemonade cupcakes!

Okay, just a few more questions I promise. I’m planning on making the cake this weekend for a birthday party, can you tell I’m a little nervous. What is the process for freezing a cake? and then for defrosting? Do you think this cake would pare well with a white chocolate buttercream or do you think it would overpower the strawberry cake? Do you know if you can color white chocolate buttercream? If I use your Quick Buttercream Frosting without the puree, and without the vanilla bean, will I need to add more vanilla extract? If I do put some of the strawberry puree in it, will it make it look pink? Can I tint that frosting even with the puree in it? Will this need to be refrigerated? Sorry so long.
Thank you a ton for your help!

– To freeze a cake, let each layer cool completely out of the pan. Double-wrap each layer separately with plastic wrap and freeze flat. If you’ve got more than one layer, don’t stack them on top of each other until they’re frozen.
– To defrost, take the cake layers out of the freezer the night before and let them thaw on the counter overnight – leave them wrapped in plastic.
– I think a white chocolate buttercream sounds great! A couple of drops of food coloring should do fine.
– Taste the frosting and then add vanilla if you think it needs it.
– Adding puree to the frosting will make it look a little pink and you can add more pink/red food coloring to it.
– If you add puree to the frosting, you should probably refrigerate it.

Thank you! My daughter is turning 6 and wants a strawberry cake. I have always made both my kids’ cakes from scratch, and was having trouble finding one! I can not wait to make this for her!! I will then decorate it as Hello Kitty! Perfect!

Hi! I just found your recipe on pinterest, and I am very excited to try it! But I do have a question. I do not have a stand mixer and I feel like my electric hand mixer might be too fast and cause me to over mix the batter. Before I found this recipe I had been trying out another “from scratch” (except it included jello) recipe, and I could never seem to get that one light and fluffy. Maybe it was never meant to be light and fluffy to begin with, but I am wondering if you have any tips for me and my hand mixer to keep me from over-beating or under-beating my batter. I’m really looking for that fluffy and soft but moist cake that is characteristic of boxed cakes but without the box and artificial stuff :).

Love this cake! it takes absolutely delicious and is super moist. My first attempt was a complete disaster. Cake seemed very greasy and totally caved in the middle. I did not all the ingredients sit to room temperature before I made it so I question if that is why it caved? My second attempt the cakes came out absolutely PERFECT! Today I am baking two 9 inch cakes and two six inch cakes. My 9 in cakes look ok although there is a slight curve towards the center, they started to cave slightly, but still useable. My 6 inch cake however looked great while baking up to the last 5 minutes and then started to cave! I have another 6 inch to bake, hopefully the same doesn’t happen. What am I doing wrong. Everything has sat at room temperature for hours, I used the bake even strips….HELP! This cake is for a bridal shower this weekend!

Please don’t throw out the juice that drains out of the defrosted strawberries, and do frost and defrost even fresh strawberries. Press on those defrosted berries to get the maximum juice out. Then reduce the juice to 1/5 th of its original volume in the microwave in a glass bowl. Let it cool, add a couple drops of lemon juice, then add back to the puree. Maximum strawberry flavor. Idea not original – taken from The Cake Bible by rose Levy

I just made this cake to occupy my young nieces for the day. Have just tasted it and it has this very odd aftertaste. I followed this recipe to the letter.

I’m based in Australia and I’m wondering whether our versions of vanilla extract are the same? Normally you would put what we call vanilla essence in cakes, not extract. But following the recipe, I used vanilla extract (which is brown and syrupy). I’m wondering whether you are actually using essence which is more of a clear liquid?

In the US vanilla extract is brown, but not syrupy. It contains just alcohol and vanilla. (the good stuff anyway). You can sub the insides of 1 vanilla bean per tsp extract. Or you can make your own extract with beans. Put 5 beans in a jar with 1/2 cup 70-100 proof vodka and let sit six months or so. It will be a dark brown and very vanillay when done.

My daughter requested strawberry cupcakes for her 3rd birthday and I really wanted one without a whole bunch of junk in it. Thank you! It turned out really well converted to cupcakes. Moist cake with a wonderful flavor. I iced them with strawberry cream cheese frosting which was perfect. I recieved a ton of compliments at her party!

I’m completely new to cake baking but my son’s birthday party is coming up this weekend. I have one cake pan — will the batter act funny if I bake one cake in the pan then bake the other? Should I refrigerate the batter while I do this? Sorry for this totally newbie question, but this cake looks delicious & I’d love to do it without having to buy another cake pan.

Nikki – it might act a little funny. When I bake the recipe as cupcakes, I only bake one pan at a time, but I have the second one on the counter ready to go. Don’t refrigerate the batter – leave it in the bowl at room temp while the other layer bakes, cools. You’ll have to wash the pan, dry it well, and then re-nonstick it. Try to be as quick about it as possible without rushing anything.

Thank you so much for your quick reply. On your suggestion I just went out & picked up another cake pan — since it was my first from-scratch cake I didn’t want to mess with any tricky situations. The cake was definitely a success! What a great recipe! My son loved it & so did our party guests. Thank you!

I made this cake and used it for cake pops..the cake alone was AMAZING! Thanks for posting the recipe! I’ll definitely be using it again! When I made the pops though, the strawberry flavor didn’t stand up to well to the chocolate coating. Do you think adding more strawberry puree would mess up the cake? I’m sure you’ve tried different amount of puree in the batter. I used fresh berries…maybe next time I’ll try draining the ones frozen in syrup and using those. Does that usually add more flavor for you?

Adding more puree would definitely throw off the ratio of wet/dry. There’s a suggestion a few comments up that I plan to try this spring – making more puree than needed and then simmering it to reduce to the amount needed to concentrate flavor.

Hi. This cake sounds delicious and I love the idea that it’s made with all fresh ingredients – no boxes required! I do not do much baking and do not have a standup mixer. Do you think I could make the entire recipe with a hand mixer? Thanks!

I read all 300+ comments and there were some really good tips. I didn’t have spray with flour so I used Pam and then put flour on after. This worked perfect. I made 2 8″ and 2 10″ cake layers. Each cake pan was 2″ deep. The first batch I took out after 30 minutes and the centers sunk. I left them to cool but when I transferred them after an hour the centers were doughy! I put them back in the pans and stuck in the oven for about 10 minutes more. I think they needed more time since they were so full and big. The second batch turned out perfect after 30 minutes. For the 4 layers I tripled the recipe. Hopefully I can salvage the bad layers with frosting since I am doing a tier cake. Thanks for the recipe!

Thank you for a cake using real strawberries. I typed in strawberry cake from scratch and the first one that came up used strawberry jello – ugh. We need the internet to understand what “natural” means, very overused and misleading to the point of dishonesty.

Really great cake! I followed the instructions exactly – even the different mixing technique & draining the strawberries & separating the eggs (all of which I was tempted to ignore). The cake was amazing with a buttercream including some of the remaining strawberry purée. Thanks for a wonderful recipe that met & exceeded my little boy’s birthday wish for a strawberry cake. (It’s his hands down favorite food.) Everyone loved the taste and I loved that our sweets were real food.

FANTASTIC!!! Made these for a wedding shower. I have been dying to find a recipe that did not end up tooo heavy. This was perfect! I wanted to add more strawberry puree, I tend to go overboard with strawberries, but I was afraid it would be too runny! But again turned out perfect! 🙂 Thansk for sharing

Delish! Moist! LOVED that this cake was from scratch- no jell-o, no strawberry extract, no cake mix. Straight-up strawberry cake. Next time I will add a little beet juice for a more “pink” cake- somebody at the party asked me if it was a spice cake. I was appalled- NO! It’s strawberry!
I made cupcakes with the recipe, piped on Strawberry Rum Swiss Buttercream. Heaven.

You saved the day (and more importantly, our party!) with this cake. Thank you!!! Earlier today I had made a cake using one of those Jello recipes. It turned out so terrible. Into the trash it went and as I was measuring the ingredients to try it again, I discovered this recipe. On a whim, I changed my measurements and just started making this! It seems to have turned out beautifully, and I could only try crumbs, but we will dig into it on Saturday and I will let you know how it tastes.

In the meantime, I would like to make a Swiss Meringue Strawberry Buttercream to go with this as a filling and frosting, in fact, I plan on making a ruffle cake so I need the meringue to be pretty firm so the ruffles hold their shape. Do you have a recipe or this? I have never made this kind of frosting before, but really want to try it — plus I promised the birthday girl those ruffles. 🙂

I just made this cake and based on the fact that you have soooooo many people that have made this cake and love it, I have to assume that my issues are user error. But if you have had any feedback at all from people who did NOT have success, maybe you could help me?

I followed your recipe exactly and the only two steps that I didn’t follow are that I used 4 whole eggs instead of 6 egg whites. The cake seemed to fall in the middle and I read somewhere that might be the cause?

I also didn’t use foil on the outside and it seems like the outsides got done way to fast. I have never had this be a problem with any other cakes I’ve made, so I don’t know exactly why it was this time, but I’ll know next time to make sure to follow that step.

Lastly, the cake is not pink at all. However, I did have the freshest, reddest strawberries. We had picked them the day before and they were super ripe. The cake is definitely not pink though. 🙁 I’m not sure what I could’ve done differently there.

I haven’t tried the cake yet- it literally just came out of the oven and is cooling, so we will see. Maybe it will turn out okay in the end. But I’d love any thoughts you have!! Thanks for the recipe! Hope to try it again with better luck!

Okay, so I just took the cakes out of the pans and it isn’t salvageable enough to frost. I am not sure what I did wrong. Maybe it was not using egg whites, I’m not sure. I tasted it and it tastes pretty good, just doesn’t resemble anything close to a cake!! LOL! Oops!

Hi Sharon! I *just* made this cake this week, part cupcakes and part 6-inch layers. I have still not had a problem with it sinking in the middle. I know others have reported it in some of the comments. I didn’t use the bake even strips either – the edges do brown a little more, which looks weird when it’s supposed to be a pink cake. One thing I did differently this time, and I’ll mention it above in the FAQ, was that I cooked my strawberries down on the stove instead of making a puree and discarding the liquid. Seemed like such a shame to keep throwing out all that strawberry goodness! It was a beautiful (almost artificially so) pink (those are the cupcakes in the picture above). I need to test it out another time or two to make sure the reduction:milk ratio is right, but I think doing this will really help the color of the cake when the berries won’t give up enough color the other way.

Oh, please do let us know the ratio of that method. I was wondering about that, as I make homemade strawberry glaze pies; for the glaze, I mash the strawberries right in the pot, add a little water and cook it down on the stove. I always have such beautiful color for the glaze and never have to add food coloring. Also, flavor-wise, it is awesome, too.

So, I’ve made this cake twice now and feel I have made errors with measuring. Third time is a charm, right? Should I try the strawberries on the stove? Can you share how to do that and if there are any other adjustments that need to be made to the recipe? I plan to start here any minute so if you are on your computer, I would LOVE some help. Thanks!!!!

I cut the green tops off of a generous 1 lb of strawberries, cut them in half, tossed with 2-3 tsp of sugar and 1/4 cup water. I simmered that on the stove until the berries were very, very soft (completely flatten with very little pressure from a spoon). Then I poured it through a fine mesh strainer and used a spoon to press every drop of liquid I could get from the strawberry pulp. I reduced the strawberry liquid to ~1/3 cup, let it cool to room temp, and then added milk to reach 1 cup for the recipe.

And, I haven’t been draining any liquid from my purée since they are fresh strawberries. Should I be? I am just cutting the strawberries, mixing with sugar, letting them sit, pure ring and then using. And, I am using the recipe another commenter saved on adding 50 percent for three layers. With that recipe, how much strawberry purée should I be using? 3/4 plus 1.5/4 equals…oh I am terrible with math! I really hope you can respond soon so I can give this one more try. Party s getting closer! Thanks!!!

Thank you so much for your response! For some reason i couldn’t see it earlier so I just made it as described originally (will have to try stovetop next time). I made sure to be very careful with the measurements and I just pulled it out if the oven. It rose beautifully and smells delicious! I followed the instructions for adding 50 percent to all ingredients and added three drops of soft pink color. Tomorrow I will tackle the Swiss meringue buttercream. I will check out your recipe for that right now. Thanks for everything!!!!

This recipe has taken me pretty much all day. Waiting for things to cool and come to room temp is pretty time consuming. Hopefully it tastes like I have been baking it all day, since that is pretty much what I have been doing!

Wow, this recipe is definitely a winner!!! It was exactly what I envisioned baking when my child asked for a strawberry cake for her birthday. The strawberry flavor is perfect! In fact, it’s the best cake I’ve ever made. It was delicious with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream with just a touch of the strawberry purée in it. It’s the first cake my family ate in entirety over the few days. Thank you for sharing the recipe! I followed it exactly as another commenter had figured out to make it for three 8 inch cake pans. The only changes I made were to use all purpose flour and subtract 6 T. I just like the taste of ap flour better. Be sure to sift the flour after measuring as that’s how it’s indicated in the recipe. I also used vanilla bean paste in lieu of extract. And the color with two drops of Americolor gel made it a gorgeous pink shade. Everything else I followed exactly as written. Can’t wait to make again. Now if I can find both vanilla and chocolate cake recipes just as good…..

I made this cake for my son’s 3 year old birthday party and it was BEYOND successful. I had children and adults flinging their hands up in the air, exclaiming how DELICIOUS, the cake was. One change I made was that I used a gluten free all purpose flour. I think it always changes the flavor some but it was still amazing. I also had a conversation with a friend about food coloring etc and she said why not add some beat juice. I was not necessarily needing the cake to be pink perse, so that wasn’t a big priority to me but her comment did make me wonder if others have tried using beat juice as natural coloring. I imagine you could get some amazing hues but maybe it turns brownish after baking? Anyway, cake was amazing and will be sending my friends to this recipe and maybe even post it, yes post it, on a list serve I’m a part of. My granola, make it yourself, community will LOVE it!

Side note: I had a few say the frosting tasted like cotton candy, although it could have been the same person running in circles in ecstasy! Thanks for the recipe.

I am making two cakes for my friends’ joint shower. I thought it would be fun to do a blue cake and a pink cake, because one is having a boy and the other a girl. I was thrilled to find your food coloring & jello free strawberry cake recipe and decided to try substituting blueberries for the blue cake.
I just made a trial blue cake and it came out perfect! I used the uncooked puree method. The blueberry batter was very purple before I baked it, but baked into a vibrant blue color and the flavor is superb! I’m planning to make a lemon cream cheese or lemon butter cream frosting to go with it.

Other changes – In addition to substituting blueberries, I used the 4 egg whole egg variation and AP flour. I’ve never made cake batter using the mixing method in the recipe , so I mixed it in the traditional way – cream butter & flour, beat in eggs and alternate wet & dry ingredients. I’m very interested to try the method described in the recipe, but hesitant because my cake came out so nicely. The cake took about 7 minutes longer to cook, but many factors may have contributed.

this looks delicious! one question though – for the cooked strawberry puree method, is there a reason why you strain out the pulp and only use the juice? could i just puree the whole thing, juice and pulp and seeds and all? thanks! 🙂

I am making this cake tomorrow, and really frightened by all the “fallen” cakes. I bought frozen strawberries. So I will be making the cooking puree method. Did you happen to say, that you changed the liquid amount to make sure the cakes don’t fall?
I also have a layer of cheesecake, (pre-baked) that I will be adding to the middle. Have made it before for a carrot cake recipe, and it is so wonderful tasting and moist.
Please let me know if I am too anxious over the cake falling!!!!….Will let you know how it turns out!

I didn’t reduce the overall liquid level but there is a different ratio of purée:milk, depending on which purée method you use. I can’t recall ever having this cake fall but if you’re worried about the liquid level, maybe reduce it by 2 Tbsp? Having never had the problem, I wouldn’t suggest going any further than that. And I think the cheesecake layer sounds awesome!

Hey Barbara! I want to make a cake just like you are describing (cheesecake stacked between two layers of strawberry cake). Did this recipe work out for you and did the cake fall? Any advice would be much appreciated!

This looks fantastic! I need to make this cake on Wednesday, but I bought strawberries from the farmer’s market on Saturday. The strawberries are currently perfectly ripe and will probably go bad well before Wednesday. Can I make the puree now while the strawberries are perfect and then freeze or refrigerate it until the day I make the cake? If so, would I just thaw it and it will be ready to go? Thanks for any suggestions anyone has for me!

Well…made my strawberry cake with a layer of about 3/4 inch cheesecake. Everything worked out, cake didn’t fall, texture was perfect to hold up the cheesecake layer. Only problem…no strawberry flavor. I used the cooking of frozen strawberry method. Cooked it down to 1/2 cup. Absolutely no flavor.
Will use a strawberry extract flavoring next time. Loved the color of the cake, was just unhappy with the taste outcome. Better luck next time.

Was craving a strawberry cake and found this one which appealed to me since its 100% strawberry cake. I made it this afternoon with the leftover puree in the middle and no frosting as I dont really love it. It was soooo good, thank you for such an easy and great recipe!

So my cakes have been in the oven for 30 minutes and the top is light brown but the center is completely liquid still. I get the feeling my first attempt at a cake from scratch will be a dud 🙁 I don’t own a fancy mixing bowl so I just used my hand mixer and my cake pans are quite old and silver(vs. non-stick). I’m not sure where I went wrong, any ideas?

I also was searching for a strawberry cake that was natural, as opposed to the ubiquitous strawberry jello and cake mix recipes. Thank you so much for this gorgeous recipe!!! I made it for my daughter’s third birthday, and it was moist and delicious. I followed the recipe exactly, but added vegetable-based red food dye to make it pinker. I frosted with Best Friends for Frosting’s strawberry buttercream, but subbed your strawberry puree (uncooked) for the strawberry preserves in that recipe. The finished product was beautiful and yummy! A huge hit with parents and preschoolers alike. Thanks again!

Just wanted you to know how MUCH I appreciated your recipe for the Strawberry Cake. I cooked the pureed fresh strawberries and then reduced them. I then sliced each layer and added the puree and put the Strawberry Frosting as the middle layer and frosted it all over. You would have blushed had you heard all the raves!!! I used puree to flavor and thin my frosting instead of the milk. Fabulous and it is now a family favorite. I have a picture but don’t know how to send it to you.

I hosted a baby shower for a friend a couple months ago, and decided I wanted to make a strawberry cake. Little did I know, until googling “strawberry cake”, that most are made from all kinds of ungodly ingredients! I was so glad to find your all natural version. My friend and the other guests went nuts for it! The cake was a little difficult to work with because it was so moist, but I managed to get it frosted and make it fairly presentable-looking. 🙂 Definitely keeping this in the repertoire!

My grandson has requested a strawberry cake with strawberry icing for his birthday. Having never made a strawberry cake before, I started with a Google search. THIS is the recipe I’ve decided to use . . . love that there’s no jello, no artificial flavors nor other similar stuff in it. I’m quite the ingredient snob and label reader. 🙂

I have an order for a strawberry flavoured treasure chest cake in a couple of weeks so went searching for a great Scratch Strawberry Cake (as all my cakes are scratch cakes), then I came across your page and this recipe..
I decided I would trial the cake on my Sister’s Birthday this weekend, so, I have 2 x 8″ layers just out of the oven.. currently no problems with it, I used the fresh Strawberry method as i needed fresh strawberry puree for some Macarons this weekend anyway.. (and also because i couldn’t find frozen strawberries anywhere.. I don’t think they exist over here (South Australia!)..
The only thing I would say about the cake is that I personally think you would need to make a 1.5batch to get the real 2 x 8″ cakes.. My batter made 1300g of batter, separated into 650g per pan, which has made them only about an inch high, where as I prefer them to be closer to 2 inches (so the finished cake is 4″ tall) but I guess, that’s just my personal preference as a decorator..
I will post a link of the finished cake and of the cut cake on Sunday.. I hope it tastes good!

Hi
The recipe sounds yummy. I just have a small doubt, is it possible for you to give the measurent of butter in grams? and also 24 oz of strawberry does it mean 24*30gms of strawberry? is it not too much or have I got it wrong? It would be really helpful if you could reply immediately because I want to try it out this weekend as a trial cake for my sons b’day next week.
Thanks a million in advance.

When you say 24 oz. of strawberries, are we talking volume oz. or weight oz? For example, I measured out ~4 cups (~32 fluid oz. by volume using a big measuring bowl or ~1 litre) and they weigh about 24 oz (or 1.5 pounds).

(I’m just going to use the 4 C and see how it goes, but this could be something to add to the recipe for clarification.)

Hi
Another question, you have mentioned all the measurements in cups, is it possible for you to say how many grams of each you have meant?Or what is the measurement of the cup that you are using?
Please reply when you have time.
thank you,
Gaya

Hi foodiebride,
finally i made the cake for my sons b’day. everybody loved it. Thank you for the wonderful recipe. I| followed ur recipe word by word and the cake came out soft and moist and the frosting was perfect and delicious.
Gaya

DO NOT DISCARD THE LIQUID FROM THE STRAWBERRIES! Simmer the strawberry liquid and reduce by about 2/3 to 3/4! Strawberry concentrate to add to your buttercream! Super tasty. Or you can brush it onto the cake or poke holes into the cake and use the concentrate as a soak. Really truly, do not discard that liquid from the frozen strawberries!

Haven’t even tasted the cooked cake yet, but the batter was so delicious that I had to let you know how excited I am to try the cake. Too bad I’m making it for a birthday party and have to wait until tomorrow to try it! 😉

So, I made this cake on Wednesday, iced and decorated yesterday, and finally tried it today… I was happy with the taste, although I think it could be slightly stronger in strawberry flavour (i used the fresh strawberries), and I found it to be a little heavy/dry.. I wonder if this is coz it was a few days old? (usually don’t have this problem tho).. I need to make another one next week, do you think I could do 3/4cup strawberry puree with 1/4 milk?? instead of the 1/2 ea? also, do you now if there are any other tips on keeping it moist? or to make it a bit fluffier??
Overall, I’m happy with the cake, but it was only good with the vanilla buttercream!!

I just, I just HAVE to give ALL KINDS OF PRAISE to this recipe!! I had never worked so hard for such a recipe before, but it was SO WORTH IT!! I have tried SO many strawberry cupcakes (from local bakeries to designer bakeries) and THIS RECIPE is the best!!! It needs so many capital letters and exclamations. THANK YOU for sharing it!! Will definitely be my go-to summer recipe. *:D

I made some delicious cupcakes! But I can’t understand why you would discard the pulp in the frozen puree version. I think next time I am just going to try puree-ing frozen strawberries and see what happens. I think I could still have too cook it down some, because these were very moist, even though I boiled down the juice.

About to start this recipe and I am really excited. I just wasted an hour making a recipe from Country Living and it was DISGUSTING! Had no strawberry flavor at all. So excited to make this one! I will let you know how it turns out! p.s. I am going to put lemonade buttercream frosting on them!

I made a cake first….turned out very tasty but the top crumbled off and made icing difficult. I just finished cupcakes, and they taste even better! Somehow they are fluffier than the cake was….

I’m not sure I understand the “discarding the pulp” part either….I ate a lot of it, seemed like a waste to throw away. What happens if you put all of it (pulp included) into the batter? Would it be runny?

I made this cake over the weekend and I must say its the best tasting strawberry cake that ive ever made, better than the jello ones. However mine didn’t come out as moist as I’d hoped, it was quite dry after cooling. Any advice for making it more moist? And it is possible to use oil instead of butter? Thank you!

This was DELICIOUS! The cake came out very moist. It was very obvious that this cake was made from scratch and it was truly special. We made it for my father in law’s birthday and were so pleased with it. Here are some of the tweaks we made (my mother in law and I). We used the 4 whole eggs versus 6 egg whites. We cooked the strawberries and measured the 1/2 C of liquid, but then we also added most of the pulp into the cake batter. This gave a unique texture and really made the cake seem fresh and not from a mix. We ended up adding several drops of red food coloring, as we didn’t get quite the color we desired from just adding the strawberry juice. We made icing with powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and a few TBSPs of the liquid from the cooked strawberries (not the pulp). We kept adjusting the powdered sugar and strawberry juice combo, until we got the strawberry flavor strong enough, as well as a good texture, for the icing. I am making this one for my own father next! 🙂

Since finding this recipe last year to make a dye free strawberry cake for a friend (my requirements not hers). I have made it numerous times because the flavor is simply amazing. I have even made it Gluten Free by substituting “Authentic Foods Bette’s Gourmet Featherlight Rice Flour Blend” for the flour one to one, adding Xanthan gum (gluten is what gives wheat flour the stretching and sticking power) and an extra egg. I love the way this cake melts in your mouth.
This year I decided to make a blueberry version for my sister’s birthday by simply substituting Blueberries for the Strawberries. It was amazing!!! I used a cream cheese icing, but I think I’ll used a whipped cream next time so that the cake can be the main flavor, the icing overwhelmed the cake.
Thanks for sharing this recipe.

So I made this cake for my daddy’s 43 birthday last weekend and it turned out AMAZING! The cake was fluffy and wonderful. I had to use a substitute for the cake flour because I didn’t read closely enough but it worked out wonderful. I feel like the next time I make it I need to add more strawberries to the cake but other than that it was great. I iced it with my family’s cream cheese frosting mixed with some of the leftover strawberry puree. My dad and stepmom both loved it. I have to make it again soon so that my mom can try it. =) Thank you for this great recipe!

Hello! My daughter requested a strange cake combo for her 5th birthday, and that’s how I found your recipe. However, she wanted Strawberry/Vanilla/Blueberry… so instead of making 3 different cakes, I used your recipe to make all three. Instead of mixing the puree in with the wet, I made the whole batch Vanilla, and separated them after everything was mixed, and put a third into a pan, a third with Strawberry puree, and a third with Blueberry puree. It came out WONDERFULLY! All three were so yummy alone, and together. Thank you! OH, and I used a stick blender and that worked very well. 🙂 I have a picture on my FB, if you’re interested in seeing. Thank you again.

I was horrified to realize as the cakes were baking that I COMPLETELY forgot about the butter!!! No butter, no oil… (i haven’t been baking that long…heh heh) I hurriedly made another batch before my birthday-guest-of-honor came over but as that was baking I cut off a slice just to try it… and I gave it to all the other 5 people who were standing in the kitchen… and they all really liked it!! So we made the first butter-less batch into a layer cake as suggested (w/straw. puree and buttercream frosting) and the (correct) buttery one i frosted w/ sweetened whipping cream. The birthday girl liked your original buttery recipe the best but my husband and i actually preferred the butterless one (although it was a little… salty?) anyway if anyone wants to be super-healthy, or runs out of butter, it will work out, surprisingly!!

I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. He continues to rave about it and there’s not even any cake left! I’m usually pretty critical of the things I make, but I have to say, this cake was unbelievable. The cake part turned out almost too moist (I thought it wasn’t fully cooked), but that made it better in my opinion. That could be because I added a little too much of the reduced strawberry juice hoping to make the batter pinker, but it didn’t really make it any pinker. The cake was just barely pink when it was done and I couldn’t taste a whole lot of “strawberry” in the cake part, but my husband said he could.

I followed the directions to a T, including simmering the fresh strawberries and reducing the liquid. I ran out of time to reduce the liquid to the correct amount, so I just used what I needed and reserved the rest. Perhaps this is the key to why my cake wasn’t as strawberry as I’d hoped? I also saved the strawberry pulp leftover after straining the cooked berries. To speed up the process, I had to stick things in the freezer and fridge to get everything cool enough, but it worked just fine. This is a time-consuming cake to make, but luckily I had all afternoon.

For the icing, I made your version of cream cheese icing. It tasted great, but didn’t seem to have the same consistency or flavor of other cream cheese icings I’ve had in the past–but no complaints. I mixed a little of the leftover strawberry liquid into the icing to make it pink, too. Then, before I iced the cake, I smeared the strawberry pulp in between the layers and on the top of the cake and drizzled it with the remaining liquid. I hoped this would soak into the cake and make it like strawberry shortcake (an idea I got off Pioneer Woman’s blog). The strawberries mixed into the icing as I spread it around, which actually created a nice look.

All in all, everyone loved it and my husband was beyond thrilled. Thanks for a great recipe.

I am in the process of making the cake. I used the fresh strawberries and cooked puree. Next instruction says to strain and reserve the juice, put in sauce pan to reduce. Then in the directions for the cake, step 3 says to put in blender. I assume this is only if you are using frozen berries? Otherwise, I would be putting juice in the blender. Thanks! Can’t wait to taste it.

Just made a gluten-free version of this cake for a dinner party last night and everyone thought it was wonderful. Love the fact that it calls for fresh strawberries–I think that is key. It was delicious! Thanks for sharing!

Glad you liked it! Would you be willing to share what you did to make it gluten-free? I get questions/emails about it from time-to-time and I know next to nothing about gluten-free substitutions. Thanks!

I’m thinking of making this cake for my mom’s birthday tomorrow. I live in Europe so I had to convert everything to the metric system and also I’ve never made a cake before so I could say that I’m a little scared 😛
Oh and I have a question, since I can’t find vanilla extract anywhere in my town, do you think using rum instead would be ok?
Thank you!

Have been reading all the reviews…been getting many good tips. I have been looking for a good strawberry cake batter to make a strawberry cheesecake cupcake with and this one looks very promising. Have a question regarding frosting/icing…which one of the ones recommended does not require refrigeration or stand up better? I had made some cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting for an event my husband’s place of employment had and by the time he got them to the event, the frosting was melting. Any recommendations? Thank you for your help!

I tried this cake today after having it bookmarked for a while. I was very disappointed- I can’t seem to think of what went wrong, because it was not the cake everyone here is raving about!

I used unbleached cake flour, which I’ve only used one other time. Does that make a difference? The taste of the batter was good, but after baking it tasted wheat-like and very bland. I followed the recipe to a T and made sure my strawberries were very sweet and fragrant, so this came as a surprise. Even the texture was strange, though I know the cakes weren’t overbaked. Any ideas about what might have gone wrong?

Wow! Just made this cake for the first time and it was GREAT! My hussband could not stop talking about it. I used a chocolate glaze with a little of the strawberry puree mixed in it. We both Loved it!
Thanks for a great cake recipe!! If you haven”t made this your missing out on Heaven!

Greetings from Sussex England and thank you for this fantastic recipe!

I was asked to make a triple stacked wedding cake for the daughter of a friend, she asked if the middle 1o inch one could be strawberry flavour and I found your recipe. Thank goodness for the net! The test cake was delicious and I made the wedding cake for last weekend. It was a whopper, 18 egg whites in all made in three layers. The Bride wanted a confetti cake so I added half a tub of multi coloured sequins, stirred in just before baking. The only tweaks I made were to add a bit of red food colour to improve the colour as the strawberry season here is over, and a half teaspoon of flavour to ramp up the taste a bit. I cooked the cakes over the Sunday and Monday before and kept them in the fridge, well wrapped in cling film. I filled and fondant iced them on Wednesday evening and they travelled down to Devon (about 200 miles) on Thursday. The cake was kept in the fridge until Saturday and was by all accounts, delicious- The bride missed out on the day and went back for a taste the next morning and All three cakes had been eaten!( The top 8 inch layer was coffee and pecan and the bottom 12inch was devils food cake filled with black cherries and kirsch)
I have just baked the recipe again in cupcake form for a friends Birthday dinner tonight, this time I didnt push as much puree through the seive so the colour was very vibrant. Instead of milk I used strawberry fromage frais and this has made the cakes very moist and light. Im just about to frost and decorate them.
I make lots of cakes for various reasons and I am sure I will be using this recipe again and again so thank you SO much for posting the recipe!!!

Hi,
I’m a little confused on cooking the strawberries for the purée! it says to keep the juice & discard the pulp? Don’t I need the puree/pulp? also am not following what then to pht back in the pot to cook before cooling & adding to the cake! could you clarify this step? i want to do this since you say it gives it a stronger strawberry taste! Baking this for my husband’s bday tomorrow 😉 I’m a newbie to baking ha! Thanks!!

Hello,
I found a website that sells pure strawberry extract…no preservatives or anything of the sort. I plan on purchasing this to make your strawberry cake and buttercream frosting. When using the extract for the cake, how much should I use along with the milk? Should I still use 1/2c. liquid (extract) & 1/2c. milk? Thank you in advance.

I want to thank you for posting this amazing recipe! My son requested a strawberry birthday cake with strawberry icing for his fifth birthday. I doubled the purée recipe and froze the extra for a second cake for his kid-party this weekend. The first cake turned out amazing! I added some of the purée to the basic buttercream frosting you posted and I think it was the best frosting I’ve ever made! So now I’ve baked this cake twice, in two different shapes, and it turned out great both times. This is a recipe I imagine I’ll be using for years! Thank you!! If its ok, I’ll be linking to this post when I blog about his cakes. Have a great weekend!

Just made these for my 3-year old’s birthday party. I was looking for a pink, homemade cake and decided on your recipe before I realized I had a huge box of frozen raspberries in my freezer. So I substituted those and everybody loved the cupcakes! They were a bit more on the purple side of pink, but delicious.

I just used this recipe to make cupcakes for my daughter’s 3rd birthday. My experience is that for cupcakes and muffins, the lower fat content, the more they stick in the wrapper. So, I used the 4 whole eggs instead of 6 egg whites – just for the higher fat content – and they turned out PERFECTLY. My oven always bakes quickly, so they were done right at 17 minutes. I frosted them with my favorite cream cheese frosting, which I mixed the extra strawberry puree, along with a little extra powdered sugar, into the frosting and it was AMAZING. Everybody raved and raved, and my 3 year old birthday girl proclaimed them the “best cupcakes ever!!!” – They were NOT bright pink, which is fine by me, since the reason I used this recipe was the LACK of artificial dye. LOVED this recipe!

Hello, do u have any advice on replacing the sugar with another sweetener such as apple juice concentrate or agave syrup? My baby girl turning one and loves strawberries! Just wanting to make the cake as healthy as possible but yummy for her as well 🙂

thank you for the recipe, it was terribly hard finding a good recipe that didn’t use jello. In any case i followed your instructions with minor modifications. I didn’t have access to fresh strawberries, when I made this cake for a birthday, so i settled for grocery store berries, but i picked the ripest berries I could find, ripe but not spoiled, since they have more developed flavors. They were chopped like the instructions said, tossed with sugar, a few drops of lemon juice and very little water. I let them sit overnight in the fridge, so the flavors could soak in. other then that, I followed the instructions, i used 4 whole eggs, chopped some more strawberries, tossed them in with the batter, put it in the oven and the cake came out wonderful. It was full of flavor and moist and had a nice pale pink color. Now with the leftover pulp i didn’t discard that (since that too was full of flavor) instead i used some strawberry preserves, a few tablespoons of the pulp, pureed them together, until it had a nice consistency and used it for the filling in between layers.

I’m not sure what I’ve done wrong but my batter split. I made sure the strawberry puree was cold (I cooked frozen strawberries as per the note) before I mixed in the wet ingredients (I used 4 whole eggs, not 6 egg whites) and then mixed in the wet mixture to the dry mixture that had already beat butter in to resemble bread crumbs. I don’t know where I went wrong because I followed the recipe to a T… Any suggestions for next time? I’m currently baking the mixture anyway, to see if it will work out. Better than throwing it out, I think.

Hi, everyone. I make a strawberry cake nearly identical to this one for my youngest son’s birthday every year since I first made it for him when he was 6 (he’ll be twelve this year). I just wanted to offer a slight variation especially if you’re taking this cake to a party. I can’t tell you how many people have given me some borderline risque compliments on this, particularly the frosting/icing. I use two pints of strawberries, hulled and placed in bowl. Sprinkle with some sugar and drizzle with some grand marnier and let sit and macerate for an hour or so. Drain (by all means try the syrup with ice cream, or better yet gelato, even frozen yogurt). Then chop to fine dice or larger if you love strawberries. If you don’t like grand marnier, try good cognac. Reserve half the strawberries and puree for to add the frosting–I sometimes make a cream based frosting, sometimes a butter cream, and sometimes mascarpone (Italian cream cheese–smoother and slightly less sour than Philly).

This cake is exactly what I was looking for. My granddaughter requested strawberry cake for her fourth birthday in November. I could have made a white or yellow cake and filled it with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, but I thought a pretty pink cake would be better. This recipe was a bit of work as I used the cooked method, but it was worth it. Great flavor and texture! The instructions were clear and easy to follow — thanks for doing such a good job with them. I filled the layers with French pastry cream mixed with the leftover puree and laid half strawberries on the cream. Came out pretty when cut.

Hi, I baked this cake for Valentines Day and it was a big hit ! ! My husband loved it. I made the cake as instructed using fresh Strawberries. It was beautiful light pink and a wonderful flavor. I used the cream cheese frosting and added the solids from the strawberries, delicious and lite. This is Strawberry Season and I will make this cake again, this is a keeper. Thank You.

Just made this and wanted deeper color and more concentrated flavor, so I put some freeze-dried berries in my processor and mixed into the heated puree. WOW! Intense flavor and rich color, just what I wanted but didn’t expect to get. Used it in my cream cheese frosting, too. Now my mind is racing and anticipating a whole arsenol of fruit cakes – mango, pineapple, peach, yum! Thanks so much for this great interpretation!

Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful-looking (and I’m sure tasting, as well) strawberry cake! Most of all, I appreciate that it is made with all natural ingredients and still has gorgeous color. My little girl is highly allergic to all food dyes, and it can be a challenge to make her fun-looking stuff like her siblings enjoy. I think we’re all set for her birthday cake this summer!

Just made this for my daughter’s birthday, with last year’s frozen strawberry puree and it was amazing. I thought that the sweet buttercream frosting almost took away from the cake. Have you ever made it as a Bundt cake with just a glaze or sprinkle of confectioner’s sugar?

One recipe will make a standard “box mix sized” 9×13, so if you want a full-sized second layer, double the recipe (my assumption is that you’re using 2 pans). Leave the temp the same and expect it to take a few minutes longer (but still check doneness about 5 minutes before the stated time to judge from there).

Also…I’ve never put foil on the outside of cake pans, but esp in this case being 9×13 I think it will need it. Where exactly do you put it? Just on the outside part? Or do you cover the top or bottom perimeter at all? I’m making this for my sons’s 1st birthday party this weekend. And one more question…if regular flour was used instead of cake flour, does that mess with the results?

The cake flour will make a tighter crumb but all-purpose flour will not ruin the recipe. If you have cornstarch, you can “make” cake flour by substituting 1 Tbsp of cornstarch for 1 Tbsp of all-purpose for each cup of cake flour in the recipe. I never bake 9×13 but I do think other cakes benefit from using the “bake even” strips. You only wrap the sides of the pans, nothing over the top/bottom.

i made a strawberry jalepeno version of this cake! lol. just FYI. it turned out great first run. i love your notes–very helpful, i went for the puree/reduction version. btw i just used regular all purpose

I am now in the process of cooking my strawberry puree, and I have a question. Is it supposed to be somewhat tart? I’ve added a couple teaspoons of sugar, and the berries were quite sweet to begin with. I didn’t want to add too much sugar and ruin the whole cake, if this is how it normally tastes in the beginning. I am quite excited to make this cake. I plan to have it for Easter! Thank you for sharing this recipe.

I have to tell you this is one of my all time favorite cakes. Ever. We are a dye free family and as a mom and wife that LOVES to bake, dye free makes things hard sometimes. I was instantly over the moon about this cake. I made it last July for my 2 year old girl’s birthday party and everyone went crazy over it! I just made it again for a friend’s baby shower tomorrow. I doubled the recipe and with the leftover batter I then filled a tray that holds 6 little bunny cake molds. Pink bunnies…too cute!!! I cannot thank you enough for this recipe. It is a staple in our home. And btw, I have never had it not feel light and yummy! Always perfect! And I will add that I only do egg whites. I personally think the yolks change things a bit. Personal opinion I guess. Thank you!!!!

I made this cake for Easter 2013 and it turned out wonderful, ppl were fighting over the cake. The strawberry pureed turned out beautifully but I layered the cake and make a cream cheese frosting and then took the puree and drizzled it on top of the cake.
It was so fantastic, delicious, a very big hit!!

OMG! I too made this for Easter today! It was half gone and it was soooooo soft and actual flavor! I served ice cream and sugared strawberries with it! Everyone loved it but I was impressed because the flavor was so good! I too used a cream cheese frosting and I added food coloring to make a tad more pink! Slam dunk my friend! Garlic Girl approval!

Ok so I made this cake tonight as a trial run for a strawberry cake I have to make tomorrow. I think I have tried the original version of this recipe before and love the addition to the recipe of cooking and reducing the berries first it makes a HUGE difference especially working with frozen berries. I really liked the texture and moisture level of the cake however I noticed that I could taste the baking powder (I think I’m sensitive to the taste :/ ). I really liked the volume of the cake and I’m not well versed enough in cake making to feel comfortable changing anything so I figured I would ask for help. What can I do to get rid of the baking powder taste without altering my visual and texture results??

Hi there – I want to try to make this cake on sunday… I only have one question. If I want to do the cooked puree method, I cant tell from your instructions if I need to strain the strawberries after cooking even if I am using fresh strawberries. so – do i?

My 4 yr old wants a strawberry cake for her birthday. A shell shaped one…(did I mention she is 4) Before I have used a cake mix and a half to fill my 14 inch round cake pan. What is your experience with this idea and this recipe?

Just used this recipe with sour cherries from the freezer that we picked last fall. Awesome colour to them. omitted milk and instead used milk powder because the blended cherries were a bit over juicy. The smell in here this afternoon is amazing.

I made this in a 13×9 sheet and it was perfection. I did the cooked puree method. I couldn’t get the puree to reduce down much, even while gradually increasing the heat to medium over 30 min, so I used almost a cup with just a splash of milk added. The flavor on cooling was amazing, but it became even fruitier and moister the next day. Not that it survived much of the next day, we’re talking an under 18 hour lifespan here. I frosted it with some Cool Whip Icing I had laying around.
Mouthwatering, moist, and delicious.

So i am pretty upset with how this cake came out..i tried making it for my dadsbirthday and it ended up really soggy and not cooking right. Im not sure if it is because I didnt puree the strawberries, I just threw them into the mixer and the kinda just got squished and choped up in there and my mother said it would be fine like thatt..or because iput all the batter in one 8inch pan instead of two (also my mothers idea) so yeah, now im stuck with a soggy cake and a nasty store bought chocolate cake for my dad instead, which really upsets me because im the baker in the family and I always make everyone special cakes for everyone. Oh well. Any tips on how I can make it actually work next time? I am thinking of trying the cupcake version this thursday and would love some tips! It would much appreciated 🙂

This might be one of the few times where moms aren’t always right. Definitely at least puree the strawberries (don’t put them in whole or coarsely chopped) and in order for it to bake correctly, you’ll either need to use *2* 8- or 9-inch pans or 1 9×13. A single 8- or 9-inch pan will not get it done.

I’m trying to make this cake but I’m really confused on your cooking the pulp directions. Your directions say, “Pour into a fine strainer set over a bowl. With a rubber spatula or spoon, scrape and press the strawberries through the strainer until all of the juice is in the bowl and you’re only left with the juiceless pulp (don’t rush this step – it’s important). Discard the pulp and transfer the juice back to the sauce pan. Reduce the liquid down to 1/2 cup and cool. Proceed with the recipe, using 1/2 cup of milk.”
I don’t understand why I’m “discarding the pulp and transferring the juice back to the saucepan” when the recipe calls for the pulp. I can’t see anywhere where the directions call for the 1/2 c. cooled liquid. What am I missing?

Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU for this fantastic recipe. I wanted so desperately to make a strawberry cake from scratch for my son’s first birthday but recipe after recipe was from a joke. I had just about given up my search when I stumbled upon your site. I made a practice cake tonight. It’s perfect. I wish I was able to put into words how much this has made my day. I wanted so badly to make his first cake and it to be perfect. This cake…..it’s gonna make it pretty darn close to perfect as I can do (I’m not that great with decorating!).

My family and I visit the Strawberry Festival in Louisiana every year. I bought extra strawberries to make a cake, hoping I’d find a good recipe. I made this cake using those strawberries and it was so good!! I only have a few questions… the cake wasn’t as moist as I would’ve liked. I know I had to have done something wrong! I don’t know if this makes a difference, but I don’t have a stand mixer. I had to use my hand mixer. Also, the cake flour says 2 1/4 cups, sifted. Does that mean I measure the 2 1/4 cups and then sift it or should I sift it while measuring the 2 1/4 cups? Also, I didn’t have a scale or anything like that so I know I used more than 24 oz of strawberries, but after I reduced it down, I only used 1/2 cup of the cooked puree. I would love to try this cake again because my family really loves strawberries and I’m so excited to find a great recipe! If you have any suggestions as to how to make it moister I would greatly appreciate it 🙂

Regarding if color is not pink enough add food coloring–
PLEASE DON’T ruin an all natural cake with dye. A few drops
Of beet juice makes the MOST beautiful red! Work s great
In icing too ( it doesn’t affect flavor and is loaded with antioxidants

This recipe is amazing! Thank you for sharing it. My family has absolutely fallen in love with it. Even my husband, who is not a fan of cake likes it!
I highly recommend using this same recipe for other fruit. Where I live, strawberries don’t always seem fresh and I’ve turned to other fruit that looks better. So far, I’ve used this recipe with blackberries and plums. Both were wonderful. Again, thank you. And, as always, enjoy baking.

This recipe sounds really good. I am planning to make this for my birthday. I have some doubts though. When using frozen strawberries do we have to add sugar and water when making the puree. Also can I use sunflower oil instead of butter for the cake. Hope you will respond in time

If using frozen berries, just thaw them and put them straight into the pan. You won’t need the sugar and you’ll probably have enough liquid that you won’t even need the water. I’ve never made this specific cake with oil, but as a general oil-for-butter substitution, you’ll want to use 20% less oil than the stated amount for butter.

I made this cake for my grandson’s birthday, his request was a strawberry cake. It was delicious. The best strawberry cake I’ve ever had. I was looking for a recipe which did not include a box cake and or strawberry gelatin, this recipe is it.

I was a bit confused by adding the butter to the dry ingredients and creating a crumb like mixture, I bake often and never used a recipe like this but I followed the instructions anyway. Well once I added the liquid ingredients it just looked like crumbs mixed with liquid, it was not incorporating together all the way but I baked it anyway. I made 24 cupcakes baked for 20 min with 1/4 tsp almond extract added, they were tasty but the color was off since the white cake mix did not blend completely with the strawberry mixture.

I was looking for a strawberry cake that used real strawberries when I found this recipe and everyone LOOOVED it!

I easily made it dairy-free for the allergic ones among us (eggs okay) by directly substituting coconut milk drink and earth balance margarine. It came out great – very moist.

For intense yummy strawberry flavor and pink color it is all about the cooked puree method! I think I’m going to use the same method to make some strawberry frozen yogurt this summer.
I split the recipe between three cake pans and baked for 15 – 20 minutes for three thinner layers with strawberry slices and frosting in between and it turned out a lovely height. Thank you!

I am about to make this cake but I do have a question. I like fluffy cakes and I don’t like my cakes to be dense. I know cake flour makes them more dense than all-purpose flour. Has anyone tried using all-purpose? If so, please let me know.
Thanks!

I just made this cake for batchlorette party, and the cake was amazing. My only question is how do you make it more moist. I just like a relly moist cake. The cake is very flavorful, and the strawberry folded into the filling is absolutely amazing. Would you suggest butter milk instead of regular milk?

I made this for a Memorial Day Weekend BBQ. (I thought the strawberry buttercream was a little too sweet, but everyone else loved it.) I used the cooked puree method, but instead of using a strainer after cooking the berries down, I used an immersion blender. I reduced the puree for about 30 minutes but not down to 1/2 cup. I had AT LEAST a full cup-and-a-half of puree, so I used 3/4 cup for the cake, about 1/4 cup for the buttercream, and I used the rest between the cake layers. This might be my new go-to cake for summer pot lucks!

I just made this recipe for cupcakes and they are so moist and very good. My only question is strawberry flavor is very subtle is there a way to get a more intense strawberry flavor? I had a lot of puree and let it reduce down to nearly exactly a 1/2 a cup.

i give up!! have made this cake twice today, my baking powder is dated for 2014 and works for other recipes but this cake will NOT rise. im so frustrated. i followed the directions to the letter. any suggestions?

I made this cake just now for a seminar tomorrow. I couldn´t resist and tasted a piece – it´s amazing! Thank you so much for the recipe! The strawberry flavour is awesome, I´m sure I´m going to bake this again. I made the 4 whole eggs version, it worked perfectly=)

Hey I’m wondering an estimate for cooking the strawberry juice down, I am trying for 1.5 the size of the recipe and I also want some left over to fold into the frosting so I got about two pounds of strawberries. I just want to make sure I cook the juice to the right consistency!
Thanks 🙂

I just made these as cupcakes and used almond milk, and applesauce as milk and butter replacements and did it with a balsamic buttercream..OMGGGGG. This beats out ANY boxed or pre made strawberry cake I have ever had! (Except for Edgar’s), this was the best homemade one I have tried!! Thanks!

Great cake, but 2 comments:
1. The recipe for the puree makes more than twice what is needed. Not sure why it’s not cut down to give the right amount.
2. If you use the whole eggs (not just egg white version) it impacts the color, and you’ll need to add food coloring. Get a concentrated pink color from a cake supply store, not the regular red grocery food coloring. The red will make it look muddy.

I amdering about this too… I made this cake a couple years ago and don’t remember this besue, but I literally have 2 cus of puree and not sure how I’m supposed to cook it down to 1/2 c without it turning into a fruit roll up? Are the amounts actually wrong?

Hi, I have cooked down strawberries that were fresh then frozen – thawed again, drained and cooked down (phew, still with me)? lol I cooked them down with sugar and some lemon juice. I did this a few days ago and it’s stored in my frig. It’s thick!! My question is (finally) – if my puree is really thick, how much would I use in your recipe? I’m limited on time, I tried another recipe and it was awful! I found your site & have high hopes 🙂 I’m looking forward to hearing from you,
Shell

I just finished making cupcakes using your recipe. OMG! The flavor of the cake was intense strawberry, moist and light…to die for. I filled with cheesecake pudding and topped with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. I added the left over strawberry puree (I used the cooked method) in the frosting and boy am I glad I will be taking these to work, I just know I would be eating way too many. Great recipe, thanks!

I made this cake today using mango puree instead of strawberry! My eldest daughter LOVES mango, but finding a recipe for a mango cake is difficult. Waiting for it to come out of the oven now! Batter was delicious, though! I did notice that my cake literally “climbed” out of the 8 in pans! Any experience with this?

Hi, we made this cake for the 4th of July. It was awesome. My question is this: Why do the fresh strawberrrys that are hulled and puree in blender are not required to use a strainer to remove the seeds? I am asking this because we cooked the fresh strawberrys using the cooked method and followed it exactly. Yet I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just use the puree straight into the recipe. Why wouldn’t be able to use the strawberrys straight into the receipe after they have cooled? I tasted the hot puree and it was awesome.

By cooking down the strawberries, you concentrate more flavor into less amount. But you can do it either way – my sister prefers NOT to strain the cooked puree and while her cake is a little more dense, it’s pretty fabulous.

And also, since we followed the cooked method and had alot of liquid left, we poked holes into the cake using the thick side of a chopstick and poured the extra liquid over our cake before we frosted it. IT TASTED super yummy! We made an extra cake and with that cake we did not poke holes over it. We did this to compare both cakes, and the one that tasted better and Yummier was the one with the poked holes. FYI..we frosted both cakes and poured puree over the frosted between the layers with the pulp. IT TASTED awesome. My daughter and I just want to know what would happen if we did not strain the cooked strawberrys and just used that for the recipe? Reading the recipe for using the fresh strawberrys in the blender, it doesnt say anything about straining the strawberrys. Can’t we do the same for the cooking method?

Just made this with the 4 whole eggs, greek yogurt, and fresh organic strawberries (did the fresh puree). I am deeming it one of the best cakes I’ve ever made and I’ve made a LOT of cakes. It was plenty pink and strawberry-y, but the fruit was at its peak here in CA. Thank you so much for this recipe!

Hi Jason and Shawnda
I am so so thankful to you guys for this priceless recipe..I had been going the gelatin boxed mix route when I happened to come across this recipe…and boy am I glad that I did try it…this is now my go to strawberry cake …made it with 4 eggs and followed the cooked puree method..the recipe was a breeze to follow as well….cake was in the oven in no time..and was so so soft and yum..
Thanks
Reena

I have twin boys, and this is the only cake that one of them will have for his birthday. This is the second year I have made this for him. Everyone loves it.
I have made it to take to cookouts and everybody wants the recipe!! Yes, I shared (;
Thank you so much for sharing this fresh strawberry cake. There are none to beat it!!! ????????????????????

I’ve made this cake (my husband’s favorite) twice now and it is a hit. I followed the recipe to a T this time, including cooking the puree and reducing the liquid. Wonderful, fluffy cake with a slight strawberry taste (not peak season for the berries right now, that’s probably why). My only problem seems to be the time. It takes me forever to make this cake. Not all hands-on, of course, since half the time I’m just letting things sit, but still it takes way too long. Not sure why it takes me so much longer than everyone else. And then today, after all that work, my cake fell apart when getting it out of the pan. I floured it and everything. How can I prevent this in the future?

Catherine, I’m like SO much later than your original post. I find that with almost ALL cakes if I wait too long to remove them from the pan they’ll fall apart. It seems to be somewhere between 7 and 10 minutes cooling in the pan and then get it out otherwise it gets stuck.

I used this recipe to make cupcakes one year ago for my daughter’s second birthday (she had asked for a strawberry-themed party because strawberries have always been one of her favorite foods). Everyone LOVED it. I even got compliments from guests who bake for a living:) Tomorrow is my daughter’s third birthday and she specifically asked for her strawberry cake again (her requested theme this year is “fruit bats” so it is still so fitting). I am so excited to make it again. I highly recommend this fantastic recipe. It wasn’t easy to find an appetizing from-scratch recipe tht didn’t include jell-o mix or artificial coloring. I also made this vegan as my son has food allergies and all substitutions went perfectly.

I so wish I’d found this recipe before I ordered strawberry extract from KAF. I am making it for my son’s wedding. Since you say the flavor is just slightly strawberry, I might add a drop or two of the extract. What do you think?

I’m working on this cake right now. I’m marbling it with a lemon cake recipe for my 3 year old’s birthday (he requested a pink strawberry lemonade cake, pink is his favorite color). I’ll have to link up the finished product 🙂

Sadly, this cake did not work out for me. It is moist and spongy (yum), but it turned cream while baking (it was bright pink prior to baking) and did not even have a hint of strawberry in the taste. I used fresh, very ripe strawberries too. Very disappointed!

Oh. My. Gosh. This recipe is amazing. I never comment on blog posts, but just had to for this. I bake a LOT but this cake…well, takes the cake! I used the cooked puree method with fresh, in season, berries and 4 whole eggs. It produced a wonderful light pink fluffy very strawberry cake. Amazing. Cannot say enough good things about it! My daughter is over the moon excited to eat her “pinkalicious” cake for her birthday!

I’m the same Gina from comment 522. I didn’t realize at that point there were other Ginas on here.

Anyway, I have tried 2 test runs of the recipe so far. The first I made into cupcakes with whole eggs and it was very dense, but a great flavor. I made half the batch with just the strawberries cooked down method and added a drop or two of strawberry extract to the other half (I didn’t measure…I would never make a good scientist!) iced with European Buttercream. The second test was a half recipe made with the egg whites, following the directions completely, but lessened the milk by just a bit so I could add a tsp of the strawberry extract. I also saved a little of the cooked down strawberries and painted it onto the top of the cake before icing with a French buttercream (the European is made with egg whites and the french with yolks. Going with the European because the french was too yellow and a lot messier. Too bad because I was hoping to use the yolks from the eggs I split to get the whites for the batter). Perfect, light cake with a great strawberry flavor! Now I just have to make 200 cupcakes and the wedding cake! Wish me luck!

Love, love, loooooove this cake! When I first made it I followed the cooked purée method and it was good, you could taste and smell the REAL strawberries but I felt like I had to search for it a little bit. I decided to alter it just a wee bit and used 3/4 cup of the cooked strawberry purée and 1/4 cup of milk. HOLY COW! I have gotten so many rave reviews on this cake and I must thank you for it! I had a friend ask me to do a Neapolitan cake this weekend and I can’t wait! Thank you sooooooo much!

I’m really excited about making this cake for my daughter’s 2nd bday! I looked everywhere for a strawberry recipe without the artificial colors and I’m glad I found yours thank you for sharing;) I was wondering if I could frost it with Swiss meringue? I want to cover the cake with Swiss meringue roses:) any suggestion would be greatly appreciated????

Late to the game on this cake, but so glad I came! My daughter wanted strawberry cake for her birthday and this was perfect! I used a (blue-tinted per birthday girl’s request!) vanilla buttercream frosting and it was moist and delish and the most beautiful pale, blush pink! No to the food coloring!
Thanks for the recipe!

Hey, The cake tasted very good as soon as out of the oven, but it started turning bitter as the day passed. The muffins got burnt. and the one more glass pan also burnt. Kindly suggest where did i go wrong. I have followed the exact measurements,

This cake recipe is INCREDIBLE! My son wanted a strawberry cake for his birthday and I wanted to avoid all the artificial junk. It is soo hard to find just simple homemade recipes anymore. Thank you! The cake was the best!

Great cake, instead of frosting/icing it, I just added some desiccated coconut flakes on top which gave another dimension to the cake. I then served it with a spoonful of yoghurt and everyone loved it! Thanks for the great recipe!

I have to tell you that I have been making this cake for my family’s birthday’s since early 2011. We love it so much. I make some minor changes for our altitude but honestly, this is just an amazing recipe that I don’t do too much to it. Thank you for sharing this amazing cake!

Hi. I am going to try this for my son’s birthday. I am a novice scratch baker and I need to make 48 cupcakes. When you double the recipe do you double all the ingredients? Can I mak one big batch or do I need to make 2 separate batches? Thanks!

I have been looking high and low for a Strawberry Cake recipe truly from scratch – specifically, a recipe that does not involve a box of White Cake Mix, and a small box of Strawberry Jello . . . FINALLY! I just finished making this cake, and I ate two pieces – the cake is moist and delicious! I frosted my cake with cream cheese frosting (i.e. to which I added a little of the leftover strawberry puree). Thank you sooooooo much for this recipe – it is a keeper, and will be my go-to recipe for Strawberry Cake really made from scratch!

I was searching for a make from scratch strawberry cake and your cake is exactly what I need. I have one question though. Which cups are you using here, the standard US cup for measurement?
So if I say 1 cup it means 120 g flour? It would be really helpful to me if you could point me out to a conversion for the cup measurement you are using.

Would really appreciate if you could reply as I plan to make this cake tomorrow for my niece. Thank You 🙂

I just made this and followed the recipe exactly as it is written. It was my first time making a strawberry cake from scratch, and although it took a bit longer than I had expected, it was worth it. I made this for my sister and my nieces and nephews, and they all raved about it! It is a delicious and moist cake that I plan on making on a regular basis. I used the cream cheese frosting, and topped it with fresh strawberries…it was the prettiest cake that I’ve ever made! Thank you!

Hi, I will be making this cake today and will use fresh berries for the puree. My question is, what is the difference in the outcome of the cake if you cook the puree vs. leaving it uncooked? Is one way better? Thanks 🙂

Well, I made your cake recipe today, and somehow, I goofed. It may be, because I doubled the recipe and used 10″ pans? I’m not sure, but the center didn’t rise like it should have. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong? I think it will still taste delicious, and I’m going to go ahead and serve it, because I don’t have time to start over. Thanks for any help you can offer.

So I bake cakes all of the time. This cake has an amazing flavor but I am having problems with the middle caving in. Not totally caving in, but maybe 1/4-1/2 inch. I made this cake 5X in the last two days. Each one caved. I looked on line for reasons. Under baking, maybe the first time. No baking strips, put those on the for the next 4 tries. Over mixing, no, I followed the directions to the T. I tried an 8″ and a 9″ pan also. The only other thing that I read was that too much baking powder would cause this. I have never seen a cake with 4tsp baking powder! I know that I have seen others with collapsing centers. I was just wondering if they found a solution to this.

For any of your readers living at high-altitude, here are a few alterations I made. The cake turned out great which is always a challenge in the mountains! This was made at 7,000 feet.
– substitute buttermilk for regular milk
– substitute regular flour for cake flour
– reduce sugar to 1 1/2 c. plus 2 T.
– reduce the baking soda to 2 3/4 t.
– increase salt to 1 1/4 t.
Bake 23 minutes at 350.

Have never had a cake receipe set up like this ( not creaming butter and sugar,eggs etc. first). The crumble of dry ingredients and butter never mixed well with the wet ingredients, there were lumps everywhere I beat the heck out of it risking a tough batter but still did not come out smooth. Cupcakes are in the oven now. Will let y’all know how they turn out. Also why so many strawberries, 1/2 left over.

This recipe looks great but there’s something I just don’t understand even though I’ve read it many times. In the instructions for the cooked puree (which I’d rather do because of what you said about the color), you chop the fresh strawbs, toss with sugar, and let sit. Then add water and simmer. Then you put them into the strainer and strain the juice and discard the remaining pulp. Then you REDUCE THE LIQUID TO 1/2 CUP. Later, in the general instructions, step #7 says to combine 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of puree. (BUT that’s all the puree you have because you boiled it down to 1/2 cup. So then what’s all the talk in step #5 about “leftover puree”?) I have to make this tomorrow and I guess if I don’t figure it out I just won’t use the cooked method. But I am wondering what I don’t understand? THANKS.

I don’t know what I did wrong but this cake has no strawberry flavor and tastes mostly of flour. I used frozen organic strawberries and used the cook method. Also, I used 4 eggs instead of 6 egg whites. Fortunately, the frosting turned out great so it saved the cake. Any ideas why it didn’t turn out right?

So many comments!! LOL. I’m wanting to make this for my daughter’s 6th birthday this weekend. She specifically requested strawberry cake. I’m going to make a “castle” cake similar to one I saw on the internet. It looked like a 2, possibly 3, layer cake. I have a couple questions:
1. Will this cake be firm enough to add a few embellishments?
2. I love the all natural ingredients, but there are a few things I’m uncertain about. I live in AK. Fresh strawberries…..yeah right. Should I just go with frozen? We do have “fresh” but…..and how do you puree them?

Okay, I’ve answered my questions by reading your FAQ’s. Should have started there. But if I use frozen strawberries, do I have to use the cook method? I would like extra puree to add between the layers. I’m taking it you did NOT use the cook method? So, instead of heating it, then, you just put it in the food processor and then still strain it? Would I need to make extra strawberries if I want to put it in between the layers?

I made this last year for my son’s birthday. It was YUMMY!! I had plans for another recipe, (always love to try a new recipe) but he is begging for this one again! I used fresh strawberries, it is a wonderful recipe. Thanks for sharing it!

I want to make it as muffins (without frosting on top) so wondering if the taste will be strawberry enough and sweet enough? I was thinking about adding white chocolate chips to the batter – do you think it will go together? will it make it too sweet? could it change the color? I want it to be pink.

I made this cake with my best friend after her boyfriend broke up with her. I put choolate frosting on it instead of buttercream, and it was absolutely delicious. I’ve always loved strawberry cake, but I never liked jell-o cakes. They have a weird consistency. This was the most perfect cake I’ve ever had. No, seriously. It was moist and tender. Thanks for this recipe!

I will be baking this cake for a grand-daughter who requested a strawberry cake for her birthday party, and will need to use a 12X18X2 pan, and experiencing high anxiety. I am surmising that a doubling of the recipe will be needed, but it has been years since I have made a cake this large and wondering about cooking time. (I always bake cakes @ 325degrees) Also if using puree of fresh strawberries between layers, will refrigeration be necessary? (Baking cake this afternoon, icing and decorating tomorrow, serving Saturday) I have read almost every post to see if this question had already been addressed.
Thank you in advance!

Hi,
This strawberry cake recipe looks delicious, from what I’m gathering from the comments I’ve read it is!, so I’m planning on making it for my neighbors when we go over there for dinner on Monday. There’s so many recipes out there that call for box cakes and such with all kinds additives and preservatives that are so bad for you and call it home made so I love the that your recipe is 100% all natural ingredients that’s actually homemade, my grandma raised me and taught me to cook from scratch so I make everything really homemade with all natural ingredients. I only have one complaint that I was unable to print out this recipe so I could put it in my book to have it for another time or can it be printed out? and I’m not finding the print button. I’m looking forward to hear from you and well certainly be looking at your other recipes. thanks 🙂

Shawnda,
I’m wondering why you mix your cake the way you do; mixing wet ingredients together and adding to dry? Usually you cream butter, sugar, etc. then add wet and then dry last. Can you help me understand this method of mixing this cake?
Thanks,
Thea

Cook’s Illustrated makes their white cake (upon which this recipe was adapted) the “weird” way. It’s the only cake I’ve ever seen made this way. It works. But it also works mixing it the traditional way, too.

I’m so glad I found this…(actually my sister found it for me). My daughter’s birthday is next weekend and she decided she wants a strawberry cake…but she doesn’t like the boxed strawberry cake mixes (we’ve made cupcakes from one before, she ate one and didn’t want any more). I’m hoping this will solve my problem. We have frozen strawberries we picked last April and I’ve been wanting something to use them in.

My son requested strawberry cake for his 1oth birthday this coming weekend. I don’t do dyes or anything processed so the gelatin recipes I see everywhere are not going to do! So glad I found this recipe!

Question for you: does this cake freeze well? I saw others post that they were going to double the batch and freeze some for later… I’ve got strawberries that are ripe and sweet and can’t wait til this weekend to bake or the berries will be bad by then. I’d like to pre-make the cakes, freeze, then pull out to frost before serving on Sunday.

I was wondering if this would work for high altitudes? Usually something says in the comments about changes but there are so many and I didn’t read through every one. I live in Colorado and it’s my husbands bday on Friday. He loves strawberry desserts… I want to make him a icecream cake with a good homemade cake. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I LOVE this recipe!!! I’ve been making it for my daughter every year for her birthday! This year I’m trying the new cooked purée method, but I can’t get the 24oz. Of fresh berries to reduce to half a cup… I’m afraid I’ll over heat them if I turn heat up too much. Did you start with the same 24oz of berries for this method? Anxious to see how the cake turns out. But would love suggestions on cooking down the berries. Thanks!

Made this, and used the cooked puree, but wanted to ensure a bolder strawberry flavor, so used 2/3 puree and 1/3 milk. It is in the freezer to be used in a couple weeks for a strawberry cheesecake cake I am making for my mom’s Birthday, so I can’t comment on taste yet, but it appears to be ok, though looking like it might be a bit dense and very moist and sugary. Mine also sunk a bit.

I can’t tell you how much I love, LOVE this cake! Recently I was asked if I can make an orange dreamcicle cake and found nothing but jello recipes (YUCK)! Do you think I could replace the strawberry reduction with an orange reduction and how do you think that would work? Also thinking about adding zest as well, what are your thoughts.

I just mad this recipe and the cupcakes turned out perfect! The frosting with the puree was too runny, perhaps I used too much. How much of the puree would you suggest to use with the buttercream recipe you suggested?

I made this tonight as cupcakes and it turned out great! I added extra sugar and some cornstarch to the leftover puree and cooked it down to make a jelly, then used it to fill the cupcakes! It gave them a great burst of strawberry flavor. Vanilla buttercream for the frosting.
Thanks for the recipe!

I used your recipe to make cupcakes today and they are absolutely delicious. I had never tried strawberry cupcakes before, but there where a lot of strawberries in my house and we were running out of ways to eat them before they went bad, so I started looking for a strawberry cake recipe that didn’t use jell-o (which was surprisingly hard to do until I found this one.) My grandma told me she hadn’t enjoyed a cupcake so much since she was a little girl. Thank you so much.

Your Strawberry Cake recipe is EXTREMELY DELICIOUS! My husband and I just made this for my birthday. It is incredible. I had 7 friends at my birthday party and everyone basically licked their plates clean. They called the cake “gourmet.” The funny thing is, we were in such a rush, we tried to freezer-cool the two cake layers after they came out of the oven, but we ended up putting the frosting on while it was still warm. The cake was so moist and delicious, no one minded the melty gooey frosting! Thanks so much, this recipe will be added to my all-time favorites!

So I’ve been looking everywhere for a strawberry champagne cake and so far there arent many. But I found your strawberry cake that looks, and from the sounds of it, tastes amazing and i was wondering if there was a way of substituting the milk maybe or something else so i could add the champagne to it? Any thoughts? I’ve baked many things but cake has never been my strong suit and this is for my husbands birthday…help!

I found this recipe last year when my middle son asked for a strawberry cake for his birthday celebration. We pick strawberries every year at a local berry farm (yum!), and were excited to use them in the recipe. It was a huge hit and is in the oven right now for this years celebration! Our favorite part (I have three boys ages 11, 8 and 5) is preparing the puree! There was much excitement in the kitchen this morning! I make a sheet cake, fold in the puree in the buttercream frosting and outline the cake with fresh strawberries! Thanks for a great recipe!

I made this exactly as directed for my sons 18th birthday today, and it was INCREDIBLE!! I made too much purée so I took the left overs and spread them on the two bottom layers so that the purée dripped down the side! Then I folded in the 1/4 cup remaining purée into the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe you linked on this page. I just put it on top and also let it drip. This cake was so moist, had GREAT fresh strawberry taste and the frosting just catapulted it to another level. I did make 50% more to have the three layers and it worked out perfectly! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for sharing an actual from scratch strawberry cake with fresh strawberries recipe that didn’t have jello in it. Kudos!

I made this cake yesterday and it came out mushy like if the liquid didnt absorb correctly. I don’t know what I did wrong 🙁 the parts that were cooked were delicious though. Help! I’m making this for my daughter’s first birthdays this Saturday!

Hello,
Just slightly confused about making the strawberry puree using fresh strawberries, where it says
“To do this using fresh strawberries, rough chop the strawberries, toss with sugar, and let sit for an hour or so until nice and juicy.” do you firstly let them sit in a bowl at room temperature, then start cooking them in a pan on medium heat.

I don’t understand how anyone could have anything negative to say about this cake. I made it exactly as stated and it came out WONDERFULLY. It wasn’t super pink BUT I am looking for taste only.. I want a natural strawberry cake, free of dyes and artificial flavors. We made the frosting as well and used to suggested substitute to make it strawberry flavored as well. OMG. Amazing. Part of the amazingness in my cake came from the strawberries I used. I am blessed to live in a super-granola part of Oregon where fresh, sweet, almost over-ripe strawberries can be picked up at our local farmer’s market, twice weekly.

Okay, I followed this to the tee and my cakes didn’t rise. How can that happen with so much baking powder? They were about 1/4″ in the middle, and took much longer than I expected to set. Very disappointed, tho taste and color was good.

Thanks very much for posting this DELICIOUS recipe! I was surprised at how hard it was to find one that used fresh strawberries instead of gelatin. And your butter cream recipe is the best I’ve found. Not only was it wonderful made with the strawberry puree, but there was plenty to cover and fill the cake unlike many recipes (are you listening Martha Stewart?) My husband generally doesn’t even like frosting, but he was “surprised to like this so much,” and could definitely taste the fresh berries. I haven’t looked through all of the comments to see if anyone else has tried using other fruits like peaches, but I’m going to keep using this recipe as much as I can! Thanks again. Now… do you have any good short rib recipes?

I made this cake over the weekend and I don’t know what I did wrong! Everyone still enjoyed it but it did not turn out the way I thought it would after reading the comments. I did the cooked strawberry method and the cake was still not at all pink and I couldn’t taste strawberry flavor at all. The strawberries were fresh from farmers market, very ripe and delicious on their own. The cake also seemed dry and dense to me. Any idea how I messed up? I want to try again!

Absolutely a great from SCRATCH Strawberry Cake! Followed the directions with one exception; Baked in a 13 x 9, then flipped out and decorated for a 3 yrs old Bday party. She loved her Strawberry cake with Strawberry Shortcake characters on top. I will definitely put this recipe in the KEEP FOREVER stack. Father in law LOVED the cake.

My daughter always asks for strawberry cake and I’ve never been happy with my previous attempts to make one from scratch. This recipe worked out perfectly. I did the cooked puree method and used all purpose flour, and both the texture and flavor was perfect. I used a more conventional mixing method (mix dry together, mix wet together, cream butter and sugar, mix eggs in slowly, add alternating dry and wet in 3 steps). Worked great. Thanks for the recipe!

the first time i made this cake was for my wife’s 40th – it was a surprise party and had some 40 people invited – everyone (those who tasted it) really liked it -so i was over the moon – thanks for the recipe.
then i did it for a dear friend’s daughter’s first birthday party and must have done something wrong. I tend to bake my cakes at low temperatures but in one pan – so I double or treble the recipe ingredients and cook them in one cake tin – never have any probs – but in this case, the middle of the cake didn’t cook properly – any suggestions/hints plsssssssssssss, cos have not baked it again since then and would really love to do it again for the same little girl’s birthday in 2 weeks time.

I made this cake for my daughter’s hello kitty birthday. It was so good and a huge hit with the guests! Such a great strawberry flavor and no jello or food coloring! Of coarse the fondant had food coloring but whatever. If I could figure out how to post a picture I would. But I wanted to say that I doubled this recipe pretty much exactly and it worked out just fine. The only trouble was that the amount of ingredients just about filled my mixer, something I didn’t thing about beforehand because I’m a space cadet. So we just covered the top of the mixer with tinfoil to mix without everything flying out! I made 1- 10 inch square and 1- 10 inch round cake layer. Froze them overnight then carved into the shape of hello kitty, frosted, and covered with marshmallow fondant. This cake is amazing tasting and can be used for anything really.

LOVEEEE this cake! Made it… tried with blueberries, too! Both great… I ended up and using whole eggs whipping the whites to fold them into the blueberry cake… kept it light and airy. Thanks for a non-gross-color-added and non-jello-added recipe! <3

For those who inquired about the mixing order used for this recipe: This recipe uses the “Two -Stage” technique which was developed by Rose Levy Beranbaum (“The Cake Bible” published in 1988). I’ve also seen this technique referred to as the “Reverse Creaming” technique. The technique involves mixing the dry ingredients together first, then adding the fat thereby coating the dry ingredients with fat before introducing the wet ingredients. This technique prevents a tough cake (i.e. when the flour is coated with the fat first, it helps eliminate too much gluten forming during the beating process – the formation of too much gluten results in a tough cake). I’ve adapted this technique for most of the cake recipes I use – it produces a nice/silky crumb, and a moist cake. Remember, baking is a science! 🙂

This was really good, excellent dense moist cake for layering too. Made with 4 whole eggs this time, would try it with just the 6 whites next time (even though it was great with whole) thinking perhaps it might help that pink color come through better with no yolk detracting.
If you aren’t able to get that pink color from just the fresh berries or frozen adding freeze dried strawberries in addition makes a big difference. You can find them at Walmart (of all places) in the dried fruit section. I used fresh berries plus added a small handful of freeze dried and blended in food processor. It was noticeably more red after adding. Great alternative if you don’t want to use food dye or gelatin.
Thanks for the recipe!

Thank you for this delicious recipe. I made it for a birthday party with lemon cream cheese frosting so it was a Strawberry Lemonade Cake. I enjoy trying to make meals/desserts as natural as possible so thank you for teaching how to make a cake with strawberries, fresh or frozen. I did frozen because it was easier and more affordable.

Is there any reason you chose not to cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, the rest of the wet, and then mix all the dry in as I usually read in cake type recipes? I’ve never seen instructions to mix the butter into the dry and then add the wet… just curious 🙂 Going to make this tomorrow for my daughter’s 1st birthday!

When I made this cak for the first time a few years ago, it was the lightest, fluffiest cake I ever made, and I attribute it to the fact that it was put together differently. Anytime I had made cakes the other way, no matter what I did, they were overly dense. This was the best, hands down.

I bake lots of cakes and found this recipe while looking for one with no jello. I followed the directions down to the letter and the layers were very thin. I thought it may have been my baking powder so I tried it again with same result. All of my ingredients were fresh and room temperature. Any suggestions?

Making this today for my birthday! I am against anything that comes in a box (Life’s too short to eat fake food ;))…And this is the perfect recipe! I bake A LOT so I can already see just by the ingredients that it’ll turn out spectacular. Thanks for sharing!

I wanted to make a strawberry cake for my boyfriend after he told me his favorite cake is strawberry. I had never even heard of a strawberry cake, I thought he meant strawberry shortcake (glad I asked). I initially made a test cake to take to work, accompanied by various frostings. I thought the strawberry flavor should be more pronounced so the next time I added a little more puree. For his cake I made a basic buttercream frosting and used leftover strawberry puree in place of milk. He declared it the BEST strawberry cake he ever had in his life. I was happy and pleased at the great result. I am known for my baking skills, but since it was the first time making a fresh fruit cake I was concerned. I baked him the first one almost 3 years ago, we are still happy, and he is still requesting my strawberry cake.

This is my go to fruit flavored cake now. I have done the strawberry version a few times since Feb 2012 (turned out perfect the first time!) And most recently I used orange juice concentrate instead of strawberries to make an orange flavored layer cake. I used orange jam mixed with cream cheese frosting for the middle layer and cream cheese frosting on the outside. It got 2nd at the local fair (after an orange bunt cake, which I think is what the judges were looking for). Even my husband thought it was great and he doesn’t like sweets much. Now I am back for the recipe again to make orange cupcakes to go with chocolate cupcakes for a Halloween party.

I followed ur directions and the cupcakes were light and fluffy and a pretty pink color but i was having a hard time tasting the strawberry. Not sure what happened there but the cup cakes dont taste like strawberry to me. What happened?

My guess is that your strawberries were not the best. It can be hard to get good strawberries, especially out of season. In winter I like to use frozen strawberries, and do the cook down method. Another reason it might not taste strawberry-y enough for you is that you may be accustomed to fake strawberry flavor which is a completely different thing.

Thank you for posting such a descriptive recipe that doesnt include jello! it took me a long time to find this! and i love that you have included frequently asked questions! very excited to get baking and hope my customers love it!

This recipe is just perfect! I just added 4 whole eggs intead of 6. Added the 4 egg yellows first, and the egg whites as last (beaten until the point that if you turn it around, it wont fall off the bowl). Its just perfect!! This recipe should be kept a secret 😛

I LOVE this cake!!! I have made it multiple times now over the last couple years and everyone gives rave reviews after eating it! Thank you for sharing such a great recipe and for providing such thorough instructions 🙂

Ok, so a question.. I made this cake a few years ago and it came out great. Now I don’t remember quite what I did… But in the first directions on making the cooked puree it says to discard the juiceless pulp… On the printable recipe, it states that you won’t have any pulp to discard… So I pressed and scraped it through the sieve pretty thoroughly, with only about a tablespoon of pulp left over, but now there is about 2 cups of fairly thick ,frothy, very well strained liquid… And I’m supposed to cook that down to 1/2 c?? It just already seems rather thick?? I’m hoping someone still tends to this site, as I have noticed that the comments are pretty old 😉

My boyfriend requested strawberry cake for his birthday, so off I went to Pintrest to find a ftom-scratch recipe. Like almost everyone else, I definitely wanted to keep away from boxed cake and gelatin mixes. This one had the most repins, so I figured, why not?
Firstly, I’d like to say that the strawberries you use definitely make a difference! I eschewed using frozen because I live in Louisiana and finding strawberries around here is like finding sand in a desert. Now, all of my strawberries tasted amazing raw (I may have picked at them while chopping lol), but only about half were ripe. So, of course, my cake didn’t really taste very strawberry -like. It wasn’t disgusting, but I’m definitely glad I put some puree and sliced strawberries in the middle.
On a better note, Chantilly icing goes amazingly with strawberries! Little marscapone, little cream cheese, a little whipped cream, and bam! Delicious!

My 7 year old son has requested this cake for his birthday cake 2nd year running. He can’t have artificial color, so from-scratch strawberry cake it is! Everyone raved last year, and I’m getting ready to make it again for this year. Thank you!!!

We made this for my daughters birthday. Insanely delish. One mistake I made was opening overln just a moment too soon, cakes fell a bit, we masked it with some thick buttercream though and everyone loved it. One thing: does this recipe call for 24 oz by weight? We did that and had a lot leftover. Used it to fill the cake and drizzle on top and still extra!

I have been making this cake now for about 3 years. I have twin boys and one of them demands this each birthday!!! The other one loves the original yellow with choc fudge icing. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!! You put my boy in heaven each birthday! This truly is an EXCEPTIONAL cake!

AHHHHH! Ya’ll must have rebranded within the last year or 2. I don’t make strawberry cake often, but when I do…it’s this one! SO GOOD, and I was freaking out because I couldn’t find it. I searched and searched for a familiar name, and I finally had given up. HALLELUJAH!!!!!

Thank you for sharing this recipe. My daughter is about to celebrate her 4th birthday tomorrow and I am making this cake for the 4th time! I have made it every year for her birthday since her first birthday. This cake has become a family and birthday tradition and is her favorite cake in the world. We all love it. Thank you!!

I made this today for a ladies’ brunch, it was fantastic! I followed the recipe as is, except I doubled the amount of strawberry puree so I could have extra to decorate the top. It came out great, thanks so much!

Wow, this cake is delicious. I made it as a bundt cake which adds about 20 minutes to the cook time, and I improvised a glaze using confectioner’s sugar, leftover strawberry puree, and the juice from half a lemon, which turned out great. Thanks so much for this really delicious recipe!

Thank you for this recipe!!! Made it today & it turned out perfectly. I halved the whole recipe (using the cooked puree method & whole eggs instead of just the whites). Baked in 22cm round cake tin & iced with 1/4 of your buttercream recipe & drizzled with some remaining puree as I’d made the full amount before deciding to halve it. Also changed the method to what I consider a normal way: cream butter & sugar, beat each egg in, beat vanilla then mix in on low speed dry & wet ingredients alternating. At this point I also added a few drops of fresh beetroot juice to intensify the colour.
This may have just become my “go to” cake!

I, absolutely, LOVE this recipe! I’m allergic to red dye, and have never been able to enjoy a strawberry cake. The best time to make this is during strawberry season – early May. But am getting ready to make it now for a friends birthday. I’ve tried the two different types of frosting, and I lean towards the cream cheese frosting. I’ve never come home with leftovers. AMAZING!

So I just mixed up this batter to use for a strawberry cheesecake cake for my daughters birthday tomorrow – it’s not even out of the oven yet and I LOVE it! The batter tastes amazing!! Can’t wait to sandwich it with cheesecake and frost it up! Thanks, this is going to be a go-to recipe, I can tell!

I tried to make cupcakes yesterday at 350 degrees but the center fell…so what does that mean? I made more today and dropped the temp but it is happening again… WHY?!? I have made this as a cake 3 years ago and LOVED it.